Scanned image of oblique aerial view showing Neptune's Staircase, Banavie Swing Bridge and Banavie Railway Swing Bridge.

Description Scanned image of oblique aerial view showing Neptune's Staircase, Banavie Swing Bridge and Banavie Railway Swing Bridge.

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number SC 369051

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of A 36759

Scope and Content Banavie Locks, Neptune's Staircase, Caledonian Canal, Inverness-shire The construction of the Caledonian Canal, 1803-22, through the Great Glen from Loch Eil to the Beauly Firth, Inverness-shire, was a great engineering achievement. It took 19 years and cost nearly £1million to build. Thomas Telford, the Scottish engineer, was employed directly by the Treasury to design it. The problem at Banavie was how to raise ships over 18m in a distance of 152m. The locks had to be built in a ladder formation - 152m of solid masonry. Robert Southey, a poet and a friend of Telford, described the locks at Banavie as the greatest work of art in Britain. However, there were practical problems. Bottle-necks were caused as only one ship could use it at a time. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/369051

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap