Ripon Canal

The Ripon Canal is short, two and a bit miles with three locks, and its interest is out of proportion to its length. It was authorised in 1767 to link Ripon to the navigable Ure and so to York and Hull, built between 1770 and 1773 for about 16,400 pounds, killed off by the railways, and then brought back by volunteers. It reopened as far as Littlethorpe in 1986 and all the way into Ripon Basin in September 1996.

For anyone from Thirsk there is a second reason to take an interest. In the same 1767 session of Parliament that authorised this canal, another Act authorised the Cod Beck navigation, meant to make Thirsk an inland port. Ripon's scheme worked and Thirsk's ran out of money after one lock. Lock Bridge in Thirsk is all that is left of ours.

There is a working trip boat at the basin, free parking, a level towpath and a bittern reserve on the bank, which is a lot for a canal most people have not heard of.

South west from Thirsk, about 13 miles. Free-flow routing says 19 minutes and you should allow 25 to 30, because Ripon's one-way system and race days are not in that figure.

The canal basin is at Canal Wharf, HG4 1AQ. There is a small free car park there plus some on-street parking, which is a real advantage in a city where the centre is chargeable. Ripon bus station is under five minutes' walk from the canal, so this is one of the more realistic car-free trips on the list once you have got to Ripon.

Start at the basin, which was restored along with its warehousing and now has new housing sympathetically fitted around it. If the boat is running, take the 30-minute cruise: it is 7 for an adult, 4 for a child, and needs no booking, so you can simply turn up and see.

Then walk the towpath south. It is about two miles to Oxclose Lock where the canal meets the River Ure, passing Rhodesfield Lock, the racecourse, a couple of bridges and the marina at Bell Furrows Lock, with picnic tables at the far end overlooking the river. Come back the same way, because there is no car park at the Oxclose end.

On the way, Ripon City Wetlands is enterable straight off the towpath, with a hide on the canal reedbed.

The trip boat, because a walk-up boat trip with no booking is rare and it turns a towpath stroll into something children will sit still for. The longer cream tea and afternoon tea cruises run on set days and do need booking ahead.

The wetlands are better than a canal reserve has any right to be. Forty-one hectares made out of a worked-out quarry, sitting between the canal and the Ure, recording bitterns, avocets, little ringed plovers, kingfishers and otters, with tufted duck, teal, gadwall and shoveler on the water and damselflies in summer. The one thing to know is that dogs are not allowed in the reserve at all, even though they are welcome on the towpath beside it.

The canal's own engineering is worth a look too: every drop of water in it comes from the River Skell, through a sluice and a 170-metre pipeline running underneath the town.

Ring 01765 609777 before you go if the boat is the point of the trip. The operator publishes a seven-day summer pattern but never states when the season starts or ends, and the last bookable dates we could see were late September. Note that the phone number on their home page has a digit too many; the contact page has the right one.

Use the loo before you leave Ripon centre. There are no toilets at the basin and the marina's are behind key-fob gates for boat owners.

Take the towpath as an out-and-back from the basin rather than trying to arrange a pickup, and if anyone is in a wheelchair or pushing a buggy, treat the first mile as the reliable stretch: that is the part published as accessible, and the southern section has an underpass and no access statement covering it. Dogs are fine on the towpath, but leave them out of the wetlands reserve.