Typical day when hiring one of our Self-Drive Day Boats
- Before your arrival, it is important to pack the essentials. On board, we provide a kettle and hob, however, you will need to bring all other necessary items. For example, if you plan on enjoying a cup of tea during your trip, please bring milk, teabags, cups and spoons. We will provide an ample amount of water for the kettle. We also provide: hand soap, washing up liquid, tea towel, loo roll, and a bin bag. We will gladly prepare a lunch for your group, but you are also more than welcome to bring your own. Please note, there is room for a cooler bag, but no refrigerator. Another option is to visit one of the three pubs on the route, with the most popular being the White Lion in Kildwick, which is about halfway through your day at the turnaround point. Please check in advance for their hours of operation and menu options.
- Don’t forget to dress appropriately, as we do not offer refunds or rebookings for inclement weather in England. It is recommended that you bring rain gear as well as appropriate footwear, as it can be muddy/slippery on the towpath.
- On the day of your trip, we recommend arriving at our car park between 9:30 am and 9:45 am. Typically, at this time of the morning, we have ample parking spaces available. However, if our free parking area is full, there is another paid parking area just two minutes walk away. LINK
- When you arrive, the person who made the booking (if they are coming) or the person designated as the responsible person will need to go to our office to complete the necessary paperwork. Please note, we also take a £50 deposit when you arrive and check in.
- From there, a member of our team, typically one of our experienced Boatmasters, will escort you and your group to your boat, which will be either Bedale or Airedale.
- Upon arriving at the boat, your Boatmaster will conduct a thorough safety briefing, including a detailed checklist and instructions on the safest way to operate the boat. Please make sure to pay attention and ask any questions you may have. If you happen to forget something during the trip, there is a large red book on board with all the necessary information, or you can contact us for assistance. Our team is dedicated to ensuring that you have the best experience possible, and will be happy to assist you in any way we can. As a last resort we can also send someone out to help you.
- At the end of the demonstration, once everyone is comfortable with the boat’s operation, the Boatmaster will take you on a brief sail to ensure that every member of your group who will be captaining the boat is satisfied with the boat’s handling. From here you’ll sail off into the (hopefully) sunshine to enjoy your day. 99% of our customers head in the Leeds direction, and turn around in a small village called Kildwick. You can go the other way towards Gargrave, but you are not permitted to go through any locks.
Our luxury Day Boats come equipped with four burners, grill cooker, a whistling kettle, sink, flushing toilets, speakers and comfy seats. **Please note, crockery, cutlery, pots & pans, extra cooking utensils will not be provided. Our boats are built with easy access in mind.Boaters_Handbook – This handbook gives you all the boating basics – the essential knowledge and techniques you need to make sure you enjoy yourselves and stay safe.
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Map of Leeds & Liverpool Canal around Skipton
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With a main line of 127 1⁄4 miles, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is easily the longest canal in Britain. It links the north-west seaport of Liverpool with the Aire and Calder Navigation at Leeds, forming a through route between the Irish Sea and the North Sea.
The Leeds & Liverpool canal climbs away from the Lancashire plain into the Pennine hills from Wigan, up the famous 21 locks, through the once proud cotton towns of Blackburn and Burnley where Victorian mills can still be seen. The summit level goes through some fine moorland scenery over the ‘backbone of England’, plunging through the mile-long Foulridge tunnel. It then begins to descend amidst remote and beautiful countryside through the market town of Skipton into the Yorkshire Dales and on towards the bustling city of Leeds and the heart of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It takes at least a week to sail from Liverpool to Leeds.
The Leeds & Liverpool is a wide barge canal, built with locks 60 feet long and 14 feet wide, reaching a height of 487 1⁄2 feet above sea level on the summit at Foulridge. The locks between Liverpool and Wigan are longer at 72 feet, as are the two on the branch to Leigh, where the junction with the Bridgewater Canal allows boats to reach the narrow canals of central and southern England. The Liverpool end of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal has now been extended past the famous Pier Head and Liver Building into Liverpool Docks.
The construction of this canal was first approved of by an Act of Parliament in May 1770. It took over 40 years to construct – partly due to the fact that they ran out of money at the halfway point. However, it was finally completed in 1816, costing £1.2 million– the equivalent today of £79 million. Through the selling of shares, the town of Skipton managed to raise an impressive £29,400 to aid the building of the canal.
The section of the canal that Skipton Boat Trips operates along is between the Five Rise Locks at Bingley and Holmebridge Locks at Gargrave, and was the first section of the canal to be opened in 1773. This was due to the relative ease of building due to the lack of locks; the stretch between Bingley and Skipton is the longest part of the canal with no locks, roughly 17 1⁄2 miles. At the end of this level stretch of canal can be found the 5 rise locks at Bingley. These are the steepest locks in the country, with a gradient of 1:5. They rise 59 foot 2” over a length of just 320 feet. Amazingly, due to the permanent presence of a lock keeper, the flight can be worked from top to bottom in just over half an hour, although in commercial times this was as little as 28 minutes.
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The building that now houses our ticket office is one of the oldest canal related buildings in the area, dating to 1774 and is grade II listed. It was originally a warehouse for goods being transported on the canal, hence the large cranes outside- one facing the canal, the other facing our cobbled car park, formerly stables for horses towing the craft. Somewhere near the site of the wharf, although the exact location is now lost, was Winterwell Hall, a medieval manor whose remains were lost during the building of the canal basin.
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As we pass underneath Pinder Bridge, you’ll see the white building to your left with car parking space behind it. This is Bowers Wharf, the site of some of the very first tourist trips on this canal. This photo of the Rechabites boat trip (a religious group) shows the style of the original trip boats. Cargo boats were cleared of their goods on a Sunday, and hired out for extra revenue.
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Named after the estate of Broughton, with its Grade I listed Georgian mansion. The estate now comprises a business park and wedding venues. The estate has been owned by the same family, the Tempests, for 900 years.
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You may have noticed, either from this map, or from the meandering part of this journey, the winding route the canal currently follows. This is a building technique known as a contour canal. It can generally be found in earlier canals, such as this one, from the 1770s, and was designed to follow the contours of the land, rather than cutting across them, requiring tunnels and locks. Later canals, such as those built in the early 19th century, are often found to be straighter due to advances in engineering.
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Aireville Park was laid out in the 1830s by Henry Allcock as part of the Aireville Estate.
It was later owned by Dewhurst family, who also owned the large cotton mills on Broughton Road. The estate was purchased by Skipton council in 1945 for £15,000. Aireville Hall was built in 1836 as the private house for the estate, and, following use during the Second World War for storing military equipment, it was reopened as a school in 1958. Through a strange coincidence, the history of Aireville school can be traced back to 1845 when the original school building, located in the town itself, was built, funded by none other than the original owner of Aireville Hall, John Dewhurst!
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Just before we pass through Brewery Lane swing bridge, you’ll notice the old brewery with its chimney on your left. Belle Vue Brewery was built for Scott’s Brewery in 1816 and was bought by Bentley’s Yorkshire Breweries in 1912 and closed down.