Caen Hill Locks, Devizes

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On a sunny bank holiday, what better way to spend our time than a sedate walk along the Caen Hill Locks canal path.

Caen Hill Locks, (pronounced cane) part of the Kennet and Avon canal is a series of 29 locks which is one of the longest continuous flight of locks in the country.

The steepest part of the flight consists of 16 locks which boaters must navigate through to make their way to the top.

It extends across 2 miles and has a rise of 237ft.

You can imagine the work involved in getting your vessel from one end to the other!

Taking on average around 4 hours for a boat to make the ascent and from watching those tackling it, it’s a real physical challenge!

Two men opening the gates at Caen Hill Locks — Halfway up the ascent, two chaps are navigating the lock gates.

A man and his dog working the lock gates at Caen Hill Locks — A “locker” spaniel and his owner preparing to close the lock gate

Walking the Caen Hill Locks tow path

For those of us on foot, walking the route along the tow path can be made at your own pace and if you’re heading down hill – is very relaxing.

Just watch out for cyclists!

There is plenty of opportunity to cross lock gates and experience the sheer greatness of this engineering masterpiece.

Kim, Life can be Toff at Caen Hill Locks — Me before I exhausted myself on the uphill climb!

On a sunny Bank Holiday Monday, the path was very busy.

The view looking down the Caen Hill Locks — The view looking down the locks toward the rolling South Wiltshire hills.

The uphill walk!

After making our way down the tow path, we turned on our heels and headed back up the hill.

For “casual” unfit walkers like myself, this proved mildly challenging, only emphasising how unfit I am.

The people at Caen Hill Locks had me in mind and installed benches periodically up both sides of the path!

But instead of following the busy tow path back up the hill, we decided to take the grassy route back up.

This path is abundant with nature and provides the opportunity to watch for birds in the side ponds.

The Caen Hill Locks from the bottom — The view from the bottom of the 16 main locks looking back up the hill toward the town of Devizes

Caen Hill Cafe

The Caen Hill Cafe serves a range of light meals and sandwiches as well as the ever tasty Marshfield Ice Cream.

I had a scoop of honeycomb and a scoop of coffee and I was absolutely made up!

It’s also worth taking a moment to pop into the welcome boat which is full of information about the locks.

We didn’t get the chance as it was busy but the tour guides outside were incredibly helpful and knowledgeable about the history of the locks.

The cafe is perfectly situated to stop for refreshments and is also where you pay for your car parking!