Monument record MHG37439 - CALEDONIAN CANAL, CORPACH BASIN

Created automatically by NMRS Register Utility
User: Admin, Date: Wed 13 Oct 2004
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NN07NE 9.06 0971 7665.

The original plan (1805) for the basin was that it was to be cut out of the rock at Corpach and should hold 10 feet of water. Modifications to the design were made in 1811, as it was so expensive and slow to excavate. It was to be 250 yards long and 100 yeards wide. From 1819 the loading and unloading of cargoes from vessels of 100 tons burden was carried out in the basin. In 1964-5 the basin was altered in order to take vessels 203 feet in length and 35 feet in width and having a burden of up to 1,000 tons.
J Lindsay 1968.

As the navvies working on the basin had to undertake their labours by hand their slow progress in cutting it out of solid rock limited its size. The pair of locks (NN07NE 9.04) at the W end of the basin raise the level of the canal as it heads E.
G Hutton 1992.

This basin is clearly visible on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1875, sheet vi), on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1904, sheet cl), on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1975) and on the OS Basic Scale raster map (ND). It is linked to the entrance of the canal by the sea-lock (NN07NE 9.02).
There appears to have been a boundary change in this area, as the feature is shown on an Argyllshire sheet in the 1st edition, but on an Inverness-shire sheet subsequently.
Information from RCAHMS (MD) 23 August 2001.