Caen Hill Locks
Planning your visit
Address: Canal & River Trust car park (P&D), The Locks, Rowde, Devizes, SN10 1QS View on Google map
Opening Times: The towpath is always open. And our welcome boat, depending on volunteer availability, is generally open Wednesday to Sunday 10.00am-3.00pm.
Price: Once you're parked up, it won't cost you a thing
Toilets: For customers of the local pub/café
The Kennet & Avon Canal has awesome examples of canal engineering. The 16 locks that form the steepest part of the flight at Caen Hill are not only a scheduled ancient monument, they are an Olympic sized challenge every boater must do. This 'wonder of the waterway' is literally a rite of passage! (Or should that be a flight of passage?)
Caen Hill (pronounced ‘cane’ by the way), is one of the longest continuous flight of locks in the country - a total of 29 locks with a rise of 237 feet over 2 miles with a 1 in 44 gradient for anyone who's counting!
But you don’t have to be a boater to appreciate this beautiful waterway. Visit our Welcome boat, The Admiral, for activity sheets on pond dipping, local walks and information and stories about the locks before taking a stroll over to our newly planted, Diamond Jubilee Wood.
A back pump at Foxhangers is capable of returning 7 million gallons of water per day to the top of the flight. That’s one lockful every 11 minutes.
Canal & River Trust
Things to do and see
- Information leaflet
- Walking routes (dogs on leads please)
- Considerate cycling
- Pond dipping
- Fishing (sorry, no fishing on the lock flight or side ponds)
- Explore the Great West Way
Just a short walk up the towpath is:
Places to eat:
Picnic spot:
Benches dotted up and down the flight as well around some of the ponds
Trails:
- Caen Hill Locks Trail - be a wildlife explorer - hunt for minibeasts, spot dragonflies, collect leaves and look out for birds along the trail
- Caen Hill flight leaflet - can you spot all the points of interest
Wildlife spotting:
The side ponds next to the locks are an excellent wildlife habitat. The resident kingfisher can often be seen, dragonflies and butterflies fly overhead, and fish leap out of the water and dart through the reeds.
Getting here
By car - SATNAV postcode SN10 1QS. Our Canal & River Trust pay & display car park is off of Marsh Lane and costs £1 for four hours. Travel down the hill and turn right following signs to Rowde
By boat - the locks typically take 5–6 hours to traverse in a boat. Check their opening times.
If you're thinking of travelling up (or down) the flight you'll need to talk to our volunteer lock keepers as they have the experience to make sure the water is conserved during your passage.
There are visitor and lock waiting moorings at the top lock and some visitor moorings as well as boating services near the bottom of the main 16 flight locks.
