Join me as I walk the full 57-mile length of the Lancaster Canal from Preston to Kendal – all condensed into a fast-paced timewarp at 15x speed. All bridges fully labelled. Filmed over 5 days in April 2025 the route follows the canal towpath from Preston’s industrial edges, out through quiet countryside, through the historic city of Lancaster and the market town of Carnforth to the end of the navigable section at Tewitfield. The canal then enters the Northern Reaches for a further 8 miles before finally being blocked off at Stainton, beyond which the old canal course can be followed along the ‘towpath trail’ to Kendal.
GPX Files of the 5 walks can be downloaded from my DropBox Below :-
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/4dlz25o0slp3nwliwxnkm/AEEzHKbGYUS8W4NGs7cNyWk?rlkey=ynohypsls84ga0fyu2xmun64m&st=tk7o8mub&dl=0
Whether you’re a walking enthusiast, canal lover, fisherman looking for a good spot, historian or a boater wanting to plan a route or check out mooring areas, this video captures the entire journey in a way you’ve never seen before.
Mistakes or omissions :-
Please let me know if I’ve made any errors in bridge labelling or anything else and I will add it below. Of course the first one was spelling ‘Preston’ wrongly on the opening tiitle 😩
* I forgot to label the Glasson Branch of the canal between bridges 85 and 86 which you will see on the left as the footbridge passes over it.
Music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi from Pixabay
Music by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay
Music by Chillmore from Pixabay
Music by Sergii Pavkin from Pixabay
Music by Josef Surikov from Pixabay
Chapters
00:00 Walk 1 : Bridge 10 (Preston) to Bridge 45 (Bilsborrow)
15:16 Walk 2 : Bridge 45 (Bilsborrow) to Bridge 86 (Galgate)
32:11 Walk 3 : Bridge 86 (Galgate) to Bridge 128 (Carnforth)
48:58 Walk 4 : Bridge 128 (Carnforth) to Bridge 149 (Holme)
59:00 Walk 5 : Bridge 149 (Holme) to Bridge 187 (Kendal)
7 Comments
Saved and will watch in stages. Must go and prepare lunch. Have just reached the section of the canal I am familiar with. Hired a canal boat and explored this beautiful canal on several occasions. Now in our 70 & 80's walking this canal might be a possibility. Thanks.
Great upload, love the Lanky. Had a boat at Galgate but plan on kayaking the northern reaches this summer.
Nice hike 👍
Navigated around Swillbrook several times , about 70 years ago, when it was not as well maintained as it appears to be now.There were very few boats around then. I never knew it continued beyond Lancaster. Facinating. Thankyou!
Do you have a gpx file for the route you can share please?
Fantastic, brilliant piece of reference and beautiful weather – thank you for all the labels. FANTASTIC 🎉
Watched this as some say you can go from Preston to Lancaster on the canal