Caen Hill Locks

Caen Hill Locks is a flight of twenty-nine chambers covering three kilometers along the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire, rising seventy-two meters from bottom to top. Side ponds built wider than usual store water between individual chambers, allowing regular boat passage without draining the upper canal section.

Engineer John Rennie designed the flight as part of the Kennet and Avon Canal, opened in eighteen ten to carry trade goods between London and Bristol along a continuous waterway. After decades of decay, volunteers and donations restored the canal during the nineteen eighties and nineties, reopening it for navigation.

The staircase ranks among the Seven Wonders of the Waterways, displaying the technical skill British canal builders developed over two centuries ago. Today leisure boats pass through while walkers follow the towpath along the entire hillside, watching the slow climb of vessels between gates.

Passing through all twenty-nine chambers takes around five to six hours, since each gate must be opened and closed manually. The towpath beside the ponds offers walkers and cyclists a continuous route along the flight, with free access throughout the year.

The central section of sixteen chambers climbs the hillside in a straight line, with each gate sitting directly above the next and no canal basins between them. This steep arrangement required building enlarged side ponds that hold water and allow repeated filling of chambers without exhausting the upper reservoir.

GPS coordinates: 51.35253,-2.02559

Latest update: December 19, 2025 22:03