Ashton-under-LyneA special chance for our customers to explore routes not normally reachable from Sowerby Bridge. You can book for 7 or 14 nights, Saturday start.
Suggested Routes:From the busiest of cities to the quietest of backwaters, via Pennine scenery and small towns and villages, the Cheshire Ring and its surrounding waterways offer a giddying variety of experiences. Distances, locks and times for each route are for the return journey to Ashton (except of course for the Cheshire Ring).
32 miles 32 locks 20 hours
Sail for Dukinfield, with surely the most elegant footbridge on the canal system, and leave the city behind on the Peak Forest canal. At Marple, you cross the aqueduct, a sheduled ancient monument newly repaired, then climb the locks through the woods to Marple. Turn left at the top and pass along the hillside with splendid views till you get to New Mills, the home of Swizzells Love Hearts.
Then carry on through lift bridges (to make up for the lack of locks) to the end of the canal at Whaley Bridge. The Transhipment Warehouse, waiting for a new use, is a reminder of our warehouse in Sowerby Bridge, and there shops, pubs and facilities in town, with good walks up the old tramway which used to connect to the canal. Untie and set off, but almost immediately turn right into the astonishing Bugsworth Basin, all restored by volunteers, where stone used to be brought by tramway. The Navigation Inn is worth the journey, but eventually you must pull yourselves away and return to Ashton.
Macclesfield
42 miles 32 locks 25 hours
Take the previous route to the top of Marple, then turn under the characteristic first bridge of the Macclesfield Canal. Sail along the hillside, with magnificent Pennine views, to Macclesfield. At Paradise Mill you can see silk looms in action (booking advisable), and other museums tell the story of silk from cocoon to catwalk.
Runcorn
68 miles 54 locks 30 hours
Take the Ashton Canal down through the Commonwealth Games site, and Manchester city’s practice ground, and arrive right in the heart of the city. Join the Rochdale Canal, and canyon down to Castlefield, where the Duke of Bridgewater brought coal to Manchester at such dramatically lower cost that he started the Industrial Revolution. Then sail off with no locks for days. Stop off at pretty, upmarket Lymm, and keep right on to Runcorn, now the end but soon perhaps the beginning of a restored link to the Manchester Ship Canal. On your return journey, turn off to see the Barton Swing Aqueduct, known locally as the Tank. If you’re really lucky, you might see it being swung off for a ship.
Diggle
20 miles 64 locks 24 hours
Head for Dukinfield and under ASDA, then start the locks up to Stalybridge for your first night – by Tescos. That’s it for the modern world, as you head into the secret domain of the Huddersfield Narrow. You’ll have the canal to yourself as you pass up through woods to Uppermill, with interesting shops and an excellent museum of local life. Then away up the Diggle flight. Turn just before the portal of Standedge Tunnel. A bus or taxi will take you across to the other end, with its visitor centre and café, and boat trips into the tunnel. Walk back across the moors under which the tunnel burrows, and earn that pint at the Diggle Hotel before setting off back to Ashton.
14 night holidays
Cheshire Ring
97 miles 92 locks 55 hours
A favourite since it reopened in 1974, this ring takes you through Pennine scenery, the gentler Cheshire countryside, and the very heart of Manchester – with many attractive towns and villages along the way. Don’t miss the walk across the fields to Little Morton Hall (NT). Stop for a boat trip on the Anderton lift – on a three week holiday you have time for a visit to the River Weaver.
Caldon Canal
128 miles 90 locks 60 hours
Travel through Marple and Macclesfield (see above) then down pretty Bosley Locks to meet the Trent & Mersey Canal. Harecastle Tunnel takes you into the Potteries, and at Etruria, home of one of Josiah Wedgewood’s epochal designs, you turn left and up a staircase onto the Caldon Canal. After a while you leave Stoke behind, and at Consall Forge reach one of the most magical parts of the canal system. This canal has two termini – don’t miss either. On your way back, enjoy everything you missed on the way out.
Todmorden
52 miles 184 locks 40 hours
Cross the summit of the Rochdale Canal on this hard but rewarding journey. Follow the Ashton down to Ducie Street, then turn right up the Rochdale Canal and head through an interesting mix of old and new buildings. A fairly hard session gets you out of the city and towards Rochdale, noting the clever ways the engineers overcame obstructions during restoration. After Rochdale the hills come into view. Littleborough has an excellent secondhand and antiquarian bookshop as well as shops, pubs and restaurants. Then you are climbing for real till you are suddenly on the short summit (with eponymous Inn), before you drop down into Todmorden. Turn between Locks 18 and 19.
Short breaks
If you are looking for a short break (3 or 4 nights), you have a good
choice - but not on this boat. Please search again,
specifying Weekend or Midweek Break, and look out for boats under
Location: Sowerby Bridge or Barnoldswick.
Out & Back 7 night holidays
Longer trips
11 to 14 nights
We offer a wide variety of 7 night and longer holidays, enabling you to explore the Pennine Yorkshire waterways. These are available on other boats. To find them, search again, and look out for red and blue boats under Location: Barnoldswick.