Canal Boat Holiday Base Information - Base 16 on the Cheshire Ring Location

Lymm and return

2 locks • 18 hours

Cruise above the picturesque River Weaver and its valley. The only lock has a drop of 6 inches! This route includes Preston Brook tunnel, nearly a mile long, and two shorter tunnels.

Beeston or Nantwich and return

16 locks • 20 hours

Easy cruising south from Base 16 with superb scenery and good pubs. Medieval Nantwich is about a mile from the canal.

River Weaver via Anderton Boat Lift and back

10 locks • 10 hours

Re-opened in 2002 the Anderton Boat Lift carries two boats at a time hydraulically, one up and one down. The River Weaver is at the centre of the Cheshire salt making area, and has excellent wildlife in beautiful scenery.

Chester and back

44 locks • 32 hours

Ellesmere Port and back

52 locks • 40 hours

From the base to Middlewich the cruising is easy and lock free and you enjoy your first experience of the delightful countryside that is a characteristic of this cruise. Notice the scars on the church tower at Middlewich, made by the musket balls of the Roundheads and Cavaliers during the Civil War. Turning right into the Wardle cut, for much of the way you run along a hill side and through a few well spaced locks to Barbridge junction and then join the Shropshire Union canal. Here you commence the drop down to Chester and on arrival there are moorings right beneath the city walls. Don't miss a walk along the city wall and through its narrow medieval streets of this World Heritage site. A few more locks allow you to continue to Ellesmere Port with a possible intermediate stop for a walk to the popular Chester Zoo. Visit the celebrated Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port where the canal joins the very much larger Manchester Ship canal. This really is a splendid introduction to canal cruising.

Cheshire Ring

92 locks • 49 hours

An enchanting run along the hillside over looking the River Weaver, brings you to a lock with just a six inch fall and then you are on the Bridgewater canal which is wide, deep and lock free for the long run to Manchester. A mooring at Castlefields will allow you to explore the City with its tram system. Don't miss a visit to the huge Arndale Centre or the even closer Science and Industry Museum. You now steadily climb the Ashton canal and begin to leave Manchester behind you reaching your highest point at Marple. Commence a long lock free run past Macclesfield before the descent to join the Trent & Mersey canal. From this junction to Middlewich many of the locks are paired which gives some indication of the intensity of the now long gone commercial traffic between the potteries and the ports.

Four Counties Ring

102 locks • 65 hours

Cruise to Middlewich and join the Four Counties Ring.