Aerial photographs showing Clachnaharry Sea Lock and Lock Keeper's House Digital image of A 36842.

Description Aerial photographs showing Clachnaharry Sea Lock and Lock Keeper's House Digital image of A 36842.

Date 1985

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number SC 799643

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of A 36842

Scope and Content Aerial view, Clachnaharry Sea Lock, Caledonian Canal, Inverness, Highland, from north-north-east This aerial view from the north-north-east shows Clachnaharry Sea Lock, built between 1810 and 1811, stretching into the Beauly Firth. The lock-keeper and his family would have occupied the two-storeyed building beside the lock. Protective breakwaters extend into the sea from the two banks, and part of the large basin is shown on the left. The construction of this sea lock was a major achievement as two 365m-long embankments had to be created before deep water in the Beauly Firth was reached. The lock was then dug out of these embankments with the sea water being removed by hand pumps, six horses driving a chain-pump and a steam pump of the same power. This lock needs continual maintenance, as the sea would destroy it. 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.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/799643

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap