Kennet and Avon Canal Link

The Kennet and Avon Canal links the River Avon at Bath with the River Kennet at Newbury, though the name "Kennet and Avon Canal" is commonly used to refer to the entire 87 mile navigable waterway from Bristol to Reading (where the River Kennet reaches the River Thames) i.e. in travelling from west to east, the route goes along the River Avon then along the canal then along the River Kennet The two river stretches were made navigable in the early 18th century, and the 57-mile canal section was constructed between 1794 and 1810. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the canal fell into disrepair and disuse, following the opening of the Great Western Railway. In the latter half of the 20th century the canal was restored in stages, and it was fully reopened in 1990. There is more information about the history of the canal on the website of the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust.

We walked along about half of the canal section, from Bath to Devizes, thus linking the Cotswold Way to the Wessex Ridgeway. It is pretty easy walking, so it would be possible to walk this distance in one day, indeed many people do - and our daughter and son-in-law did. However we chose to spend two leisurely days on the walk (plus a bit from the centre of Bath to the outskirts), with an overnight stop near the town of Bradford on Avon. The walk also took us through or close to Batheaston, Limpley Stoke, Avoncliff, Hilperton (near Trowbridge), Semington, Seend Cleeve and Sells Green.

Major structures on the canal include the Dundas and Avoncliff aqueducts and there are many swing bridges and locks. The most famous structure is probably the flight of clocks at Caen Hill near Devizes. The canal is busy with leisure craft and a lot of people live on it; we walked past countless house boats, many of them attractively decorated and with flowers and plants on the roof.

We did the walk immediately after completing the Cotswold Way in April 2016. The weather was dry though rather cold. In principle we walked along the towpath all the way, though we left the route to visit places of interest, pubs and B&Bs, and we had to follow the road for much of the section between Bath and Batheaston because of towpath repairs - fortuitously this diversion went very close to our B&B, Abbey Rectory.

Click here for more photographs of our walk along the Kennet and Avon canal.

Click here for details of the first leg of our walk.