The Four Counties Ring from Blackwater Meadow Marina
Duration: 14 Nights
TOTAL LOCKS: 132
CRUISING TIME PER DAY: 7 HOURS (90 HOURS IN TOTAL)
Maps & Guides for this route: P3, P5, N4, L8, L10 | Click here buy maps
Travel up the canal to the Shropshire Union to begin the ring. Takes you along the wonderfully rural Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal to Great Haywood Junction.
Passing under a distinctive roving bridge, you join the Trent & Mersey Canal heading north towards the Potteries and Peak District. Rolling Staffordshire countryside leads you to Stoke-on-Trent, the Wedgwood Visitor Centre and the impressive 2926-yard long Harecastle Tunnel.
The scenery on the climb up ‘Heartbreak Hill’ to the summit at Kidsgrove is fantastic. Beyond Harecastle the 13 miles to the salt town of Middlewich sees the canal descend 31 locks to the Cheshire Plains.
The short Middlewich arm links the Trent and Mersey Canal to the Shropshire Union Canal again through more glorious countryside. Don’t miss the Bottle Kilns at Etruria!
