Castlegate Quarter put-in (Sheffield)

This launch sits at the very head of the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, a broad canal running 3.9 miles (6.3 km) down to the River Don Navigation at Tinsley through a flight of 11 locks (originally 12). The locks take craft up to 61 ft 6 in by 15 ft 6 in (18.75 m by 4.72 m), so it is a genuine broad canal rather than a narrow cut. Paddlers here face into a walled, enclosed basin and travel outward, north-east, down the canal towards Attercliffe and Tinsley. There is no feeder reservoir; the basin's water level is held by pumping from the River Don.

The Grade II listed Straddle Warehouse stands directly across the basin from the launch, built around 1895-1898 on a steel frame with concrete infill on stilts and restored in 1994-5. Historic England describes it as a canal warehouse whose building "straddles the canal", with loading bays through which boats once passed; it now holds offices across four upper floors. The 1819 Terminal Warehouse and a curved terrace of coal merchants' offices from around 1870 also front the basin.

Downstream, the canal passes beneath the Grade II* listed Wicker Arches railway viaduct of 1848, whose main arch clears about 9.1 m (30 ft) and spans 22 m (72 ft); the viaduct still carries occasional freight traffic overhead.