Monday to Sunday: 8am to 8pm (GMT)
UK | 02045781435 |
USA/Canada (toll free) | 1 (800) 272-4162 |
Other Countries | +442045781435 (alternatively send us an e-mail and request a call back, or call on Whatsapp below) |
Live Chat | Click Here |
07878310232 | |
james@canalboatholidays.co.uk |
Please note that these route pages are a work in progress. The figures below indicate route length; however, not all locks and bridges are included currently, so the time required may be underestimated.
The Cheshire Ring itself:
Cruising Hours: This route consists of 97.101 miles, 92 locks, 4 movable bridges and 5 tunnels. Which will take 8 days, 0 hours and 14 minutes when travelling for 7 hours per day at our default speeds.
Departure Point: Beeston, Cheshire
Cruising Hours: This route consists of 125.658 miles, 110 locks, 4 movable bridges and 5 tunnels. Which will take 10 days, 0 hours and 57 minutes when travelling for 7 hours per day at our default speeds.
Departure Point: Stone, Staffordshire
Cruising Hours: This route consists of 126.864 miles, 116 locks, 6 movable bridges and 7 tunnels. Which will take 10 days, 3 hours and 17 minutes when travelling for 7 hours per day at our default speeds.
From the hustle and bustle of Manchester to the dreamy estates of Dunham Massey and Lyme Park you’ll experience lots of canal history on your journey around the Cheshire Ring. If you can’t decide if a city break or a peaceful holiday among the rolling hills is the right canal boat holiday for you then look no further. Highlights include the Anderton Boat Lift, Dunham Massey and Manchester City Centre. The Cheshire Ring is one of the most popular cruising rings in the U.K. and can be either done within a week or two.
The Cheshire Ring is a popular canal ring in the North West of England and, despite its name, passes through both Cheshire and Greater Manchester and a very small section in Staffordshire. At 97 miles long and with 92 (mostly narrow) locks it's a route that can be completed in an active week or a more relaxed two week hire making it particularly popular with holiday boaters.
A view of some of the Locks in the Bosley Locks, one of lock flights on this canal ring. © David Jones. Licensed under Creative Commons
If you start at a hire base on the ring itself, you can expect to cruise for 53-54 hours. Over a one week hire, this is an average of 7-8 hours per day so is very do-able for a committed crew, but do make sure that all members of your crew would like to be cruising for 7-8 hours of the day. A two week hire would make for a more relaxed hire, taking only 3.5 cruising hours per day if you start on the ring itself or 5 hours per day if you start at one of our family-run partner hire bases which will add an additional 30 miles or so to your route.
Of the locks on the Cheshire ring the vast majority are narrow locks and in flights such as the Marple Locks, Bosley Locks, Cheshire Locks (also known as Heartbreak Hill) being narrow they can be worked reasonably easily by even small crews and being in flights you'll have a day or half a day of lock-wheeling, followed by a day or two of lock free cruising.
There are 10 broad locks on the Cheshire Ring, these being a flight of nine on the Rochdale Canal between the Ashton Canal and the Bridgewater Canal and Big Lock on the Trent & Mersey near Middlewich. These are still very much do-able even by a small crew but expect the gates to be larger and heavier, slightly harder to work and therefore to spend more time per lock than on the narrow locks.
A view from the Canal in Poynton, from which you can walk into Lyme Park, a National Trust property. © Smabs Sputzer. Licensed under Creative Commons
With much of the route in Cheshire, there are frequently views of miles over the Cheshire Plain and on the Macclesfield Canal runs along Gritstone ridges to the east with views of Mow Cop, Bosley Cloud and White Nancy, all part of the Gritstone Trail. All can be accessed on walks from the canal. In Greater Manchester the surroundings become more urban and the canal cuts right through the center of Manchester. Castlefields, at the junction of the Rochdale and Bridgewater canals, provides an excellent safe mooring from which to explore the City and its industrial heritage.
The canals on the Cheshire ring grew around the industries that required them, from the Silk mills in Macclesfield, Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent to the Salt mines in Middlewich and Northwich. You can learn a lot about these industries and the roles the canals played at museums such as the Lion Salt Works in Northwich, Macclesfield Silk Museum, Portland Basin Museum, Anderson Engine Museum in Higher Poynton, Discovery Center Bollington, Science and Industry Museum in Manchester and the Anderton Boat Lift and Visitor Center.
Once you've had your fill of history there are plenty of other attractions to visit on route, such as Little Moreton Hall, Dunnham Massey, Walton Hall & Gardens, Marbury Country Park and Anderton Nature Reserve. You can also explore Lymm, Bollington, Marple and a few other towns and villages along the way.
There are plenty of canal side Pubs to visit and you can use our Canal Planner to find top rated canal side food and drink
The Peak Forest Canal, one of a handful of possible extensions to the Cheshire Ring if you have some extra time. © Smabs Sputzer. Licensed under Creative Commons
Visit Buxworth Basin on the Peak Forest Canal, Worsley Delph and Barton Swing Aqueduct, Down the Anderton Boat Lift and onto the River Weaver, Take the Runcorn Arm of the Bridgewater canal an underused canal which can contibute to the completion of the Silver Propeller Challenge
The Cheshire ring can be completed both in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. If you are completing the ring on a hire boat I would recommend taking onboard the advise of your starting hire base, there may be specific advantages and disadvantages depending on where you start. For example starting or ending with a relaxed lock free section on the Bridgewater canal.
As interesting as it's industrial heritage, you may prefer to stick to the more rural sections of the ring. Two options would be to head up the Macclesfield canal and along the peak forest canal to Buxworth Basin? Alternatively for a less light route you could cruise along the Bridgewater canal.
There are multiple hire bases that serve the Cheshire Ring, some on the ring itself and some a short distance away. We've partnered with 2 independant hire bases that between them have over 100 years experience hiring narrowboats on or near the Cheshire Ring, holidays from these bases depart from either Stone in Staffordshire or Beeston in Cheshire. Both will add roughly 30 miles to your Cheshire Ring route.
*Canal side places powered by foursquare
Useful youtube videos covering some or all of this route.
Please note: These are independent youtube video, and not affiliated with or endorsing our business Roam&Roost Canal Boat Holidays
Sign up to get details of the latest deals as-well as tips and updates from ourselves (as we travel around the waterways) or our Partner hire bases.
We wont spam you & you can unsubscribe at any time