Fast facts
With the Scottish canals on your doorstep, improve your knowledge and check out these fascinating facts and all that Scottish canals' care for:
Waterway miles
There are five Scottish canals, together making 141 linear miles of waterway network:
60 miles - Caledonian Canal
9 miles - Crinan Canal
35 miles - Forth & Clyde Canal
6 miles - Monkland Canal
31 miles - Union Canal
Megalitres
Between them, the canals contain 7,766 ML (megalitres) of water
Reservoirs
The Scottish canals are supplied by 19 reservoirs, holding a total of 18,304 ML of water
Lochs and locks!
We have the navigation rights to four lochs, including Loch Ness
Guardians
We are guardians of:
1,500 hectares of land and water
90 locks
98 road bridges
77 accommodation bridges
50 foot bridges
8 railway bridges
2 towpath bridges
Millions of visitors!
Over 20 million visits to Scotland's canals each year
The Falkirk Wheel
The world's first - and only - rotating boat lift is The Falkirk Wheel , which links the Union and Forth & Clyde Canals.
The Falkirk Wheel is 35 metres tall, the equivalent of 8 double decker buses stacked on top of each other!