Scheduled Maintenance
Please be advised that this website will undergo scheduled maintenance on the following dates: •
Every Thursday from 17th October until 7th November from 11:00 to 15:00 •
Tuesday, 22nd October from 11:00 to 15:00
During these times, some services may be temporarily unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Oblique aerial view showing Neptune's Staircase, Banavie Swing Bridge and Banavie Railway Swing Bridge.
A 36759
Description Oblique aerial view showing Neptune's Staircase, Banavie Swing Bridge and Banavie Railway Swing Bridge.
Date 1985
Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography
Catalogue Number A 36759
Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images
Copies SC 1676111, SC 369051
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/64548
Attribution: © Crown Copyright: HES
Licence Type: Full
You may: copy, display, store and make derivative works [eg documents] solely for licensed personal use at home or solely for licensed educational institution use by staff and students on a secure intranet.
Under these conditions: Display Attribution, No Commercial Use or Sale, No Public Distribution [eg by hand, email, web]