The Grantham Canal hike

Known in its day as ‘the romantic canal’, the Grantham Canal runs for 35 miles from Grantham to Nottingham.  Closed in 1936, the sterling work of the Grantham Canal Society is slowly bring the waterway back to life.

I love canal walking and by happy coincidence the Grantham Canal makes up a stage of my heroic Hit the North expedition.

So, the idea is to take three days in the spring and walk the route from Nottingham to Grantham with two nights wild camping on the way (using my lovely new camping hammock).

Map of the route of the Grantham Canal
Map of the route of the Grantham Canal

I’m really excited about this hike.  Here’s a lovely photo of the canal from Flickr by mistymorning23:

Grantham Canal
Grantham Canal (from Flickr, by mistymorning23)

12 thoughts on “The Grantham Canal hike

  1. Looks great to me, and the camping hammock sounds intriguing. I’ve walked the whole of this towpath — over many stolen hours — often retracing my route back to the car to solve the logistics.

    1. I’ve already been warned ‘oh you can’t wild camp on the Grantham Canal’, where’s the adventure in that?!

    1. Hi Howellsey, thanks for dropping by. I agree with you about the therapeutic nature of canal walking and it’s great not having to consult a map all the time or look out for sign posts, hard to get lost on the canal.

  2. Good to see lots of people enjoying walking on the Grantham and other canals. I’m working with the Grantham Canal Heritage Partnership on an Activity Plan as part of a Heritage Lottery Bid for funds.

    We’d love to hear what you think and what you’d like to see along the canal. Everyone completing the survey will be entered for a £100 prize draw at the end of March. Simply go to:

    http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KT89HW8

    Eliza

  3. We walked the Grantham Canal in 2006 and it was lovely. Started Grantham end mid morning, lunch at the Dirty Duck, Woolsthorpe, overnight in a lovely B&B at Redmile, lunch at Hickling basin, overnight in another lovely B&B at Cropwell Bishop and arrived in Nottingham lunchtime the next day.

    1. Hi Wendy, thanks for dropping by. Sounds like you had a lovely time on your hike. I’m now planning to do the walk in two days with a wild camp overnight somewhere around the half way point. I have my eye on a couple of likely pitches but if the worst comes to the worst I’ll just have to camp out on the towpath ; )

  4. I have ran and walked the full length of the Grantham canal more than 30 times in 1 go without rest, it is a good training walk that I can fit in to a busy week if I don’t have time to go and do other walks, I have many others training walks I do from Nottingham

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