March Wharf canal routes for holidays and short breaks

7 Night routes

March to Cambridge – through Marmont Priory Lock, Salter’s Lode Lock, Denver Tidal Sluice and back

Experience landscapes full of sky, and skies full of birds, along this route that communes with nature. The journey also takes you travelling through time to touch some of Britain’s most potent history. You’ll cruise across a place described as the ‘Holy Land of the English’ because of its cathedrals, and its celestial reputation makes sense as you steep in far-reaching panoramas of the charismatic flat fenlands.

Before the drainage of the Fens, March was once an island surrounded by marshes, so as you pass through the town your eye view is up from water level. Sir John Betjeman would be disappointed if you didn’t moor up here to visit St Wendreda’s church, just a short walk from the town centre. He once declared it was “worth cycling forty miles into a head wind” to see the angel roof of the church. The roof from inside is a terrific vision of over a hundred carved angels that hail the beautiful silence of a 15th-century church.

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March to Huntingdon – through Marmont Priory Lock, Salter’s Lode Lock, Denver Tidal Sluice and back.

Travel through wide open landscapes that expand with nature’s free will yet steer along waterways that have been managed by the tenacity of man too. Your cruise tempts you to enjoy anything from bird watching to visiting the remains of a 17th-century fort, and there’s even a chance to see the bones of giant reptiles that stomped around in this region over one hundred million years ago (*temporarily closed until 2017).

Before the drainage of the Fens, March was once an island surrounded by marshes, so as you pass through the town your eye view is up from water level. Sir John Betjeman would be disappointed if you didn’t moor up here to visit St Wendreda’s church, just a short walk from the town centre. He once declared it was “worth cycling forty miles into a head wind” to see the angel roof of the church. The roof from inside is a terrific vision of over a hundred carved angels that hail the beautiful silence of a 15th-century church.

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3 – 4 Night routes

March to Ely – through Marmont Priory Lock, Salter’s Lode Lock, Denver Tidal Sluice and back – 3/4 nights

This route takes the water traveller on a journey bursting at its banks with history and wildlife – from the town that was once an island, following tranquil waters and wide skies, adventuring through the mighty Denver Tidal Sluice and reaching Cromwell’s home territory in Ely.

Living history with emotional peaks and troughs is knitted into the flat landscapes of the Fenlands. In the 1630s a Dutch hydraulic engineer named Cornelius Vermuyden was commissioned by the Earl of Bedford to drain the fenland. But, before the drainage of the Fens, March was once an island surrounded by marshes, so as you pass through the town your eye view is up from water level. Sir John Betjeman would be disappointed if you didn’t moor up here to visit St Wendreda’s church, just a short walk from the town centre. He once declared it was “worth cycling forty miles into a head wind” to see the angel roof of the church. From inside, the roof is a terrific vision of over a hundred carved angels that hail the beautiful silence of a 15th-century church.

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March to Wansford – through Ashline Lock, Orton Lock and back.

An idyllic journey through wide countryside bursting with wildlife and quintessentially English charms. As well as mingling with geese, swans and precious species of endangered wildlife, this route screams in the company of two Tudor queens and a little blue tank engine called Thomas.

From the very start of this route, heading along the Old River Nene, you succumb to the marvellously odd gratification that comes from crossing an invisible line. Beyond Floods Ferry you will cross the Greenwich Meridian, the line that defines the world map, separating east from west just as the Equator does south from north. After mulling on the moment, travelling along the west side of the divide, keep your eyes peeled for the fork right turn onto Whittlesey Dyke. Straight on towards Ashline Lock (a boater-operated manual lock), you’ll arrive at the historic market town of Whittlesey. The cheeky route suddenly decides to test any helmsman’s skills with a savage 90° bend, followed with the reward of cruising glorious open countryside riddled with wildlife and fen colours.

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