Aerial photograph showing Laggan Locks at entrance to Loch Lochy.

Description Aerial photograph showing Laggan Locks at entrance to Loch Lochy.

Date 1985

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number A 36806

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 801478, SC 1676141

Scope and Content Aerial view, Laggan Locks, Caledonian Canal, Highland, from south This aerial view from the south shows the locks which were completed by 1822 with a lock being repaired in 1910. Boats entering or leaving the locks would have to travel between the east pier (bottom right) and the large west pier (bottom left). The west pier has several bollards spaced along its top which would have been used to moor boats waiting to enter the locks. There is a modern pier to the left of this and people that worked on the site would have occupied the buildings around the locks. During the building of the locks it was discovered that there was a layer of decomposed and vegetable matter. Water could not penetrate this exceptionally hard substance and it was decided that it could form the base for the locks. Much of the rubble stone used in the construction of the locks came from the nearby Kilfinnan Burn, with freestone being transported from the Firth of Clyde. The Caledonian Canal was designed by Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and built between 1803 and 1822 at a cost of £840,000. It was the first example of a transport network funded by the government in Great Britain. The 96.5km-long canal provides a route for boats travelling between the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean as it runs from the Beauly Firth at Clachnaharry, Inverness, to Loch Linnhe at Corpach. Only 35.4km of this length is man-made while the other 61km runs through four lochs: Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. Unfortunately, at 4.2m deep, the canal was too small for most sea-going ships which led to it being altered and deepened between 1844 and 1847. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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