Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands

Date 2007

Event ID 962619

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/962619

Dingwall Canal

(Institute Civil Engineers Historic Engineering Works no. HEW 2545)

This 2000 yard long canal with its two basins and quays connected the Peffrey, Great North Road and town with the Cromarty Firth and was used by vessels of up to 9 ft draught. It was built under the auspices of the Highland Roads Commission from 1815–17 for £3800 by William Hughes, a Caledonian Canal contractor. The engineer was David Wilson.

The canal encountered silting problems throughout its existence and was thought to be finally improved in the late 1860s but, within a decade, it had again fallen into disrepair and became disused from 1884. Nothing is now visible of the works at the town end, but much of the canal channel still exists.

R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.