By the canal in Ripon

The River Ure skirts the ancient city of Ripon on its eastern side. In the 1770s a canal was built, engineered by William Jessop, to link the river with the city centre. As canals go it was on the short side, just 2.3 miles long and with three locks. The canal proved an initial success, transporting coal, lead, and agricultural goods from places such as York and Hull into Ripon. But with the expansion of the railways in the mid nineteenth century, the canal fell into disuse and decline. It was officially abandoned in 1956.

However it was never filled in, and in 1961 efforts to rescue it began, initiated by a local boating club. It took several decades but finally in 1996 the canal was fully restored and reopened.

Today it is used by a local company running boat trips and by leisure boats accessing the marina by Ripon Racecourse. But its most popular role is as a walking route, its towpath attracting locals (especially dog walkers) and visitors to the city.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon we joined them, walking about two thirds of its length on an ‘out and back’ route. Although it’s also possible to loop back to the city via a track and road on the far side we were enjoying the canal too much to want to do that.

The walk starts by the canal basin in the southeast corner of Ripon. For a short while it parallels a rather noisy road, but after a bit it swerves away from that road and peace descends.

You don’t need any directions from me to follow in our footsteps. So for this week’s (belated) Monday Walk I’m simply sharing a gallery of photos I took along the way.

NB Don’t worry, the crocodile isn’t real! He’s one of a number of quirky objects alongside the canal: pirate flags, plastic dinosaurs, toy unicorns and more. I suspect they are placed there by the boat trip organisers to appeal to their youngest passengers.

I last visited Ripon in August 2026 when all these photos were taken