Archaeology Notes

Event ID 817358

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/817358

NN17NW 11.01 11341 76955

Banavie Locks [NAT]

Neptune's Staircase [NAT]

(Both at NN 1134 7695)

OS 1:10,000 map, 1975.

Neptune's Staircase [NAT] (name centred NN 11341 76955)

Banavie Locks [NAT] (name centred NN 11268 76913)

Banavie Locks [NAT] (name centred NN 11573 77207)

OS (GIS) AIB, May 2006.

Location formerly entered as from NN 1125 7686 to NN 1155 7718.

The lock gates were replaced between 1890 and 1906 by stronger ones constructed from oak and steel. In 1920 the whole flight of locks was thoroughly restored, the canal being closed to traffic for nine weeks in order to undertake this, and by the middle of the 20th century the locks were mechanized.

J Lindsay 1968.

These eight interconnecting locks at Banavie, more popularly known as Neptune's Staircase, raise the canal by 64 feet [19.5m]. Boats of up to 150 feet [45.7m] in length and 30 feet [9.1m] wide can be accommodated in each lock. When visiting with his friend Thomas Telford, the canal's chief engineer, the poet Robert Southey described the flight as 'the greatest work of art in Britain.'

A Burton 1983.

This great engineering achievement consists of eight staircase locks forming a quarter of a mile of continuous masonry. They lift the canal 62 feet. The problem of such a design, although cheaper and easier to construct than single locks, is that a bottleneck is caused when a large boat goes through the flight, as any boat travelling in the opposite direction has to wait until it has gone all the way through the series. Although early plans show basins in the middle of lock flights which have the benefit of creating passing places, these were rejected as too costly in the initial stages of construction and also during alterations in the 1840s. Unfortunately, due to poor construction, repairs were necessary on several occasions, and, in 1929, when a drifter crashed into the top gates, serious structural defects became obvious, as the sudden alteration in water pressure caused the collapse of the gates of the two top locks. Further catstrophe was avoided on that occasion by the fact that the third set of gates held firm.

G Hutton 1992.

This flight of locks is clearly marked as Banavie Locks or Neptune's Staircase on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1875, sheet vii), on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1903, sheet cxxxix), on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1975) and on the OS Basic Scale raster map (ND).

There appears to have been a boundary change in this area, as the feature is shown on an Argyllshire sheet in the 1st edition, but on an Inverness-shire sheet subsequently.

Information from RCAHMS (MD) 30 August 2001.

The location assigned to this record defines the centre of the flight. The current OS (GIS) AIB depicts it as extending from NN c. 11252 76860 to NN c. 11550 77180. It all falls witin the parish of Kilmallie.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM) 9 May 2006.