Lune Aqueduct

John Rennie's spectacular stone aqueduct at Lancaster nearly doomed the whole Lancaster Canal project.

Once the route of the canal was mapped out by Rennie in 1791, from Wigan and Preston in the south to Kendal in the north, the aqueduct was built in isolation, ahead of the building of the canal that connected to it. However, it proved so expensive to build that the money ran out and there was no cash left to build the aqueduct over the River Ribble at Preston to make the crucial southern link from the Lancaster Canal to the rest of the canal network.

The canal remained in glorious isolation for many years, and even the branch to the tidal River Lune at Glasson was not to increase trade greatly. But in 2002, the Millennium Ribble Link was opened: the first new canal for 95 years, it finally offered a way for inland craft to cross between the Lancaster Canal and the national network. It connects the southern end of the Lancaster Canal at Preston with the River Douglas and then the Rufford Branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

In Lancaster there are remains of fortifications dating from Roman times as well as of a Roman bathhouse (01524 64637), a well preserved Medieval Castle (01524 64998), city museum (01524 64637), Maritime Museum (01524 64637) on the River Lune, plus fine Georgian and Victorian architecture. The market square hosts a twice-weekly open-air market and monthly Farmers' Market. Williamson Park (01524 33318) is a nearby country park, open to the public, including an Edwardian tropical butterfly house. The giant folly in the Park - the Ashton Memorial - is easily visible from the city centre.

Take a trip on a waterbus from Lancaster to Lune Aqueduct.

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