The Aberdeenshire Canal

The inception of the Aberdeenshire Canal dates from the late 18th Century, 1795 to be precise, when a group of landowners chose to project a canal running through the fertile Donside lands, from the harbour at Aberdeen to Inverurie, or rather a point south of it which became known as Port Elphinstone after one of the local landownders who was a keen advocate of the canal. Engineered by john Rennie, who had worked on other canals such as the Lancaster Canal and the Kennett and Avon Canal, construction started in 1798, but it was not opened until 1805. The canal carried a varied cargo for the agricultural concerns in the area, and was also useful to the various granite quarries and paper mills that lay nearby. As built, the canal was 17 feet wide (although it was later widened), with the towpath on the eastern bank for the whole route. Milestones were placed at half mile intervals, in order to establish the charges for the carriage of goods and passengers.

Costing £44,000 to build, the canal never made enough money back to pay shareholders, and when sold to the Great North of Scotland Railway in 1845, they paid a mere £36,000. The canal continued to operate until 1853, after which it was stripped of masonry, and chunks were overlaid with the new railway which opened the following year.

After closure, the parts of the canal that did not end up being supersceded by the course of the railway were left to rot. Development of new buildings and streets in Aberdeen and its suburbs swallowed up most of the urban remains of the canal; while in rural areas, much of it ended up being ploughed out and flattened. But even after over 150 years of abandonment, lengths of the canal still remain, and the purpose of this website was to explore them.