Boaters "not allowed to operate locks" on the Forth Clyde canal ?

[Justin Smith]

We just had a mail shot through from ABC boating and whilst I was reading about their hire base at Falkirk one sentence jumped out at me :

 

"Scottish Canals staff currently operate all of the locks and bridges and boaters are not allowed to operate the locks themselves" [my italics]

 

I think they were talking just about the Forth Clyde canal (?) but is that right ? And if so how long has it been the case ? Is it the same for any other Scottish locks ?

Edited September 27, 2025 by Justin Smith

[haggis]

I think that is Scottish canals policy on the Lowland canals, the Crinan and the Caledonian. I think it has always been the policy on the latter two and when the Lowland Canals reopened, they were the same. I have fought against it since the canals reopened but to no avail. On the  the Forth and Clyde locks   there are only gate paddles and the flow from them is very fierce even when they are just opened a little bit and the owner of the first hire company was adamant that hirers would sink boats if they ere allowed to operate the locks.

I find it very frustrating to be tied to a timetable and not to be able to stop and start when you want. Mooring is tricky as well as the vegetation between the canal and towpath is so high and wide that you can't get near the banking. Pontoons are provided for mooring but again they are where Scottish canals want them. 

We do very little boating in Scotland despite having a boat moored about 15 minutes from our house. We consider a 400 mile round mile  down south gives us a better experience!

[RS2021]

I think it's been like that since it reopened. Most people go to Edinburgh so all the locks are as you leave the yard and go through the wheel. If you're planning going elsewhere you'll need to book any locks and bridges.

[Justin Smith]

4 hours ago, haggis said:

I think that is Scottish canals policy on the Lowland canals, the Crinan and the Caledonian. I think it has always been the policy on the latter two and when the Lowland Canals reopened, they were the same. I have fought against it since the canals reopened but to no avail. On the  the Forth and Clyde locks   there are only gate paddles and the flow from them is very fierce even when they are just opened a little bit and the owner of the first hire company was adamant that hirers would sink boats if they ere allowed to operate the locks.

I find it very frustrating to be tied to a timetable and not to be able to stop and start when you want. Mooring is tricky as well as the vegetation between the canal and towpath is so high and wide that you can't get near the banking. Pontoons are provided for mooring but again they are where Scottish canals want them. 

We do very little boating in Scotland despite having a boat moored about 15 minutes from our house. We consider a 400 mile round mile  down south gives us a better experience!

It is slightly worrying actually as I have often wondered why the Health & Safety zealots allow boaters to do something as potentially dangerous as operate a lock when they are quite happy to ban stuff that is less risky. I have said before it is only a matter of time before H&S mission creep gets to the operation of locks......

[haggis]

I don't think I have ever encountered a boater operated lock in England with a flow as fierce as those on the Forth and Clyde 

[Justin Smith]

6 minutes ago, haggis said:

I don't think I have ever encountered a boater operated lock in England with a flow as fierce as those on the Forth and Clyde 

Do you mean flow through the paddles ? If it's potentially dangerous why don't they just limit the amount they will open ?

[matty40s]

35 minutes ago, haggis said:

I don't think I have ever encountered a boater operated lock in England with a flow as fierce as those on the Forth and Clyde 

Have you been on the Wey?They can be pretty vicious!

[haggis]

43 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

Do you mean flow through the paddles ? If it's potentially dangerous why don't they just limit the amount they will open ?

Yes, the gate paddles. The  only paddles the locks have. Don't know if they have ever looked at reducing the flow.

18 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Have you been on the Wey?They can be pretty vicious!

No, never been on the Wey

[Alan de Enfield]

2 hours ago, haggis said:

I don't think I have ever encountered a boater operated lock in England with a flow as fierce as those on the Forth and Clyde 

 

On some of the locks on the River Trent the flow thu the gate paddles was so strong that the boaters complained that they couldn't hold their boats - 'baffles' were placed in front of the paddles to restrict / divert the flow.

[magpie patrick]

The lowland canals are the only ones where one might expect user operation - The Crinan and Caledonian Canals were built for seagoing vessels and always employed lock keepers.

 

If I understand correctly on the F&C it's not just the absence of ground paddles, it's the lack of bywashes, which means many locks weir over the top gates. This coupled with the locks being comparatively short means Scottish Waterways want to supervise use of the locks. Add to it that most yachts and motor cruisers going coast to coast want lock keepers and the end result is supervised passage. 

 

 

[Justin Smith]

13 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

The lowland canals are the only ones where one might expect user operation - The Crinan and Caledonian Canals were built for seagoing vessels and always employed lock keepers.

 

If I understand correctly on the F&C it's not just the absence of ground paddles, it's the lack of bywashes, which means many locks weir over the top gates. This coupled with the locks being comparatively short means Scottish Waterways want to supervise use of the locks. Add to it that most yachts and motor cruisers going coast to coast want lock keepers and the end result is supervised passage. 

Are there any boater operated locks in Scotland ?

 

In England even the Chester staircase locks are boater operated, and I can tell you the first time we went through them it took us a while to work to how to do it, in fact, TBH, we made a bit of a bollox of it. But no harm was done and fortunately it was later in the evening so we didn't have an audience !

Edited September 28, 2025 by Justin Smith

[Iain_S]

14 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

The lowland canals are the only ones where one might expect user operation - The Crinan and Caledonian Canals were built for seagoing vessels and always employed lock keepers.

 

If I understand correctly on the F&C it's not just the absence of ground paddles, it's the lack of bywashes, which means many locks weir over the top gates. This coupled with the locks being comparatively short means Scottish Waterways want to supervise use of the locks. Add to it that most yachts and motor cruisers going coast to coast want lock keepers and the end result is supervised passage. 

 

 

The locks on the Crinan used to be boater operated. Most yachties employed a local to operate them (think he charged £50), but that was quite a ew years ago. They are now operated by Scottish Canals.

 

You are correct about the F&C's lack of bywashes. They are, however, currently being installed on the Falkirk flight. Locks 17 to 20 do have bywashes, but they are usually fairly well blocked, and I've never seen an appreciable flow through them. Going down the Falkirk flight, the lockies usually had to let water down ahead of them. If they did not, the bottom gates became progressively harder to open, due to the increasing flow over the top gates. When they were operated by Scottish Canals, or BW, a vehicle was often used to open the first one. We volunteers had to be a bit more subtle, as we use bikes  (Past tense, as Falkirk flight has been shut for a year or so, and hopefully the bywashes will make a difference!)

 

 

[haggis]

1 minute ago, Iain_S said:

The locks on the Crinan used to be boater operated. Most yachties employed a local to operate them (think he charged £50), but that was quite a few years ago. They are now operated by Scottish Canals.

 

 

The twice we cruised the Crinan, we worked the locks ourselves and a couple of experiences come to mind. 

The first time we launched at Ardrishaig (after clearing the lobster creels off the slipway) and the sea lock was operated for us. We then set off up the first flight and came to a lock with a bridge across it. As gamebird is only 26 feet long we were able to get through the lock by going under the bridge. We got told off he next morning for negotiating a bridge without BW assistance 🙂 

On another trip coming back from Crinan to Ardrishaig, we locked with a yacht with a volunteer helping them. I was working the locks on our side and it worked well with both the employed lockie and I working together. There are excellent towpaths along both sides of the canal and neither of us crossed a lock gate. 

The Crinan is a beautiful canal and it is one of Gamebirds many achievements to be the  first narrow boat to cruise it, a few weeks before Ocean Princess

[magpie patrick]

28 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

The locks on the Crinan used to be boater operated. Most yachties employed a local to operate them (think he charged £50), but that was quite a ew years ago. They are now operated by Scottish Canals.

 

16 minutes ago, haggis said:

The twice we cruised the Crinan, we worked the locks ourselves and a couple of experiences come to mind. 

 

 

This is why I said where one would expect user operation - most people wouldn't expect it on a maritime short cut! Reading the histories then in the commercial heyday (as far as the Crinan had one) there were lock keepers. The Caledonian locks also employed lock keepers, apparently there were 12 at Fort William for the 8-rise!

 

There used to be a far higher presence of lock staff on the English and Welsh Canal system too - even though they generally didn't work the locks but tended them and managed water levels etc. 

 

The F&C and the Union were opened when the canals were BW, and some of the lead team for the restoration were very well versed in what went on on the canal system south of the border. I can only surmise they knew user operation was an option, but decided it was unwise on these canals. 

[haggis]

16 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

The F&C and the Union were opened when the canals were BW, and some of the lead team for the restoration were very well versed in what went on on the canal system south of the border. I can only surmise they knew user operation was an option, but decided it was unwise on these canals. 

I often wondered how much influence the BW folk from south of the border had over the reopening of the Lowland canals. For example, the new staircase locks above the Wheel initially had operating gear in the shape of a horizontal wheel which was partly over the lock. Not very safe as the operator had to lean over the lock to operate it. Fortunately now replaced with automatic gear lock side. Also, where on earth did BW Scotland get the idea for  the method of stopping vandals opening gate paddles? I lost count of the emails and photos I sent of anti vandal gear in use down south but what was installed was a big box thing which required a special key to open it and a very odd shaped windlass to work the paddles. Very cumbersome and time consuming to operate. 

When we arrived at the opening of the Wheel we found that all the mooring bollards had been installed back to front and your rope just slid off.  That was a minor problem though and was quickly fixed after the opening.

[magpie patrick]

6 minutes ago, haggis said:

I often wondered how much influence the BW folk from south of the border had over the reopening of the Lowland canals.

 

Basically it was at the front end, feasibility, concept and strategy - I've had this problem on the studies I produce and it has led to me being very prescriptive (and clients complaining about it). So up front team will specify the basics (lock needs paddles, anti vandal locks needed, bollards needed) and then hands over to the design team... 

 

My experience of design teams, if they don't understand canals, is that, even when there are tried and tested solutions, they can produce designs that would never have occurred to me... such innovation is often less than helpful. 

[Mike Todd]

57 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 

 

This is why I said where one would expect user operation - most people wouldn't expect it on a maritime short cut! Reading the histories then in the commercial heyday (as far as the Crinan had one) there were lock keepers. The Caledonian locks also employed lock keepers, apparently there were 12 at Fort William for the 8-rise!

 

There used to be a far higher presence of lock staff on the English and Welsh Canal system too - even though they generally didn't work the locks but tended them and managed water levels etc. 

 

The F&C and the Union were opened when the canals were BW, and some of the lead team for the restoration were very well versed in what went on on the canal system south of the border. I can only surmise they knew user operation was an option, but decided it was unwise on these canals. 

12 is about the number needed to provide a team of 2 or 3 (peak times 4) on a 24/7 basis.

[PeterScott]

On 28/09/2025 at 12:03, haggis said:

... but what was installed was a big box thing which required a special key to open it and a very odd shaped windlass to work the paddles. Very cumbersome and time consuming to operate. ...

 

On 28/09/2025 at 12:03, haggis said:

I often wondered how much influence the BW folk from south of the border had over the reopening of the Lowland canals. ...

 

and maybe a BW-Scotland to BW-England idea in 2009 

 

 

 

 

Stanley Locks branch L&L 2009 (now removed to allow user-operation_)

[Chris John]

On 27/09/2025 at 17:50, Justin Smith said:

It is slightly worrying actually as I have often wondered why the Health & Safety zealots allow boaters to do something as potentially dangerous as operate a lock when they are quite happy to ban stuff that is less risky. I have said before it is only a matter of time before H&S mission creep gets to the operation of locks......

Scaremongering at its finest 

[IanD]

33 minutes ago, Chris John said:

Scaremongering at its finest 

Would you expect anything less from him? 😉 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

The numbers are available to calculate the actual risk from boater lock operation. CaRT log lock operations at many flights with SCADA linked guages as a denominator. Lock sinkings invariably result in a stoppage to clear, again logged by CaRT. Fatalities are known. Fortunately rare. The only unknown risks are injuries, where the person hobbles off to A&E, or is picked up by ambulance, where CaRT may not be aware. 

[magpie patrick]

4 hours ago, PeterScott said:

 

 

and maybe a BW-Scotland to BW-England idea in 2009 

 

 

 

 

Stanley Locks branch L&L 2009 (now removed to allow user-operation_)

 

That idea may have been borrowed off Ashline Lock on the Middle Level, certainly a shrouded spindle was used there in the early 80s 

 

And to add - Ashline Lock was user operated at the time, but you had to buy the windlass!

[haggis]

5 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

And to add - Ashline Lock was user operated at the time, but you had to buy the windlass!

Not having any marinas up here there was nowhere to acquire a windlass but of course some boaters, including Iain , did. He possibly now has two as he was given one when he became a volunteer lockie.

[Graham Davis]

5 hours ago, Chris John said:

Scaremongering at its finest 

And typical of him.

[Iain_S]

14 hours ago, haggis said:

Not having any marinas up here there was nowhere to acquire a windlass but of course some boaters, including Iain , did. He possibly now has two as he was given one when he became a volunteer lockie.

The two I have are home made. One started life as a Sabb starting handle, and the other is made from a normal windlass. At least the latter one fits the taper, unlike the official Scottish Canal ones!