Crinan Lighthouse

Crinan Lighthouse is a white brick tower with a hexagonal masonry structure and red trim, located where the canal meets open water at its western terminus. The structure features a gallery and lantern room topped with a red-painted roof, marking the transition point between the protected waterway and the sound beyond.

This structure was built in 1851, roughly 50 years after the canal itself opened in 1801 to provide vessels a shortcut avoiding the long route around the Kintyre Peninsula. Its construction reflected growing maritime traffic that required better navigation aids at this strategic junction.

This structure marks a significant point along Scotland's working waterways and represents how maritime trade shaped life in this region. Standing at the junction, visitors can sense the practical importance of the canal as a passage that sustained both fishing and commerce through local communities.

The structure stands beside the final lock at the western end of the canal and is easily reached from nearby paths and buildings around it. Visitors should know this remains an active waterway, so watching boat traffic passing through gives a sense of the location's continued use and purpose.

The interior of the tower now serves as storage and is not open to public visitors exploring the site. However, the adjacent lock keeper's house offers overnight stays, allowing visitors to remain at this remote waterway terminus and experience the quiet of the canal system at dusk and dawn.