Lancashire, England

Carnforth put-in (Lancaster)

Launch — A public slipway on Canal & River Trust towpath land, reached through the adjoining car park of the Canal Turn pub.

Parking — The Canal Turn pub, immediately beside the slipway, has its own car park; capacity, charges and any restriction on use for launching are not published, and Canal & River Trust holds no car park of its own on Trust land at Carnforth. A public roadside layby on Lancaster Road (A6), south of Carnforth near Bolton-le-Sands, gives an alternative approach to the towpath under Bridge 126.

Access — Reached off Lancaster Road (A6) in Carnforth, on the towpath beside the Canal Turn. The towpath here is a permissive path: Canal & River Trust allows public use, though most of its towpaths are not public rights of way.

Season — The canal here is open to licensed craft year-round; no recurring seasonal closure specific to this reach has been published. Canal & River Trust runs a winter maintenance programme most years that can affect navigation and towpaths elsewhere on the network, so check the Trust's notices and stoppages feed before travelling.

Regulations — Canoes, kayaks and paddleboards need a Canal & River Trust small craft licence to be on the water here (a Paddle UK waterways licence also covers it); short-term visitor and day-permit options are available alongside the annual licence. The Trust's general canal speed limit of 4 mph, and a requirement not to create a breaking wash, apply on this stretch.

This is a public slipway on the Lancaster Canal at Carnforth, on Canal & River Trust towpath land beside the Canal Turn, a pub that has reopened under new management rather than standing derelict.

Carnforth sits on Canal & River Trust's own Tewitfield to Lancaster canoe trail, 10.5 miles, which starts a short way north at Tewitfield and runs south through Carnforth, Borwick, Warton and Capernwray, under the M6, then through Bolton-le-Sands and Hest Bank, where the canal runs close to the sea, on its way toward the Lune Aqueduct.

Further south the canal crosses the River Lune on the Lune Aqueduct, a Grade I listed structure designed by John Rennie and completed in 1797, carrying the canal 664 ft (202.4 m) across the river at a height of 61 ft (18.6 m) on five semi-circular stone arches. The Preston to Tewitfield line as a whole runs lock-free for 42 miles (67.6 km). Away from the water, RSPB Leighton Moss lies around two miles from Carnforth: a reedbed reserve designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance in 1985, and home to bitterns, marsh harriers, bearded tits and otters.

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Edelweiss Cafe

An independent cafe in Carnforth, tagged amenity=cafe in OpenStreetMap.

Conditions to check

Boat traffic

The site sits at a winding hole where the canal widens so that narrowboats can turn, and this reach carries narrowboat and hire-boat traffic as a result.

Source

Limited exit

Navigation ends a short distance north of Carnforth at the abandoned Tewitfield locks, beyond which the canal has been severed in three places by the M6 motorway.

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