How a trip to Scotland planted a seed that grew into a love affair with the Cut.
Our History
Scotland, 2022
Where it all began
It started, as so many good things do, with a trip that had nothing to do with canals at all.
In 2022 we found ourselves in Scotland — and somewhere between the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel, something shifted. The Kelpies are extraordinary: two enormous steel horse heads rising 30 metres out of the Helix Park, standing sentinel over the Forth and Clyde Canal. You can't stand next to them and not feel something.
Then came the Falkirk Wheel. A rotating boat lift — the only one of its kind in the world — that connects two canals at different levels by simply turning, like a giant mechanical fairground ride that happens to carry narrowboats. We watched it move and looked at each other. The same thought was forming in both of our heads.
What if we actually got on one of those boats?
We watched the Falkirk Wheel turn and thought: what if we actually got on one of those boats?
The Falkirk Wheel
A rotating boat lift — the only one of its kind in the world — that connects two canals at different levels by simply turning. We watched it move and looked at each other. The same thought was forming in both of our heads.
August 2025
Four days on the Cut
Three years later, we did it. In August 2025 we rented a narrowboat — a 65-foot beauty called Curzon — from Anglo Welsh at Great Haywood Marina in Staffordshire.
Great Haywood sits at the junction of the Trent & Mersey and the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canals, which meant we had options from the moment we cast off. We spent four days on the Cut, moving at the pace the canals demand: four miles an hour, no faster.
Four days doesn't sound like much. But time moves differently on a narrowboat. You're up with the light. You moor where the mood takes you. You work locks alongside strangers who become friends by the second gate. You eat better than you have any right to. You sleep like you haven't slept in years.
By the time we handed Curzon back, I already knew I wanted to write about this. Not a travel review — something more like a love letter. To the canals, to the countryside, to the particular kind of quiet you only find at four miles an hour.
Time moves differently on a narrowboat. Four miles an hour turns out to be exactly the right speed for everything.
Ready to write your own story?
The canals are waiting. Start with our guide to the best waterways in England, Wales, and Scotland.
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