Canals occupy a strange place in the cultural imagination. They’re manmade, yet offer a connection to nature. They offer a means of transport, but one that’s only accessible by boat. Some cities depend on canals, like Amsterdam or Venice. In the UK, canals are often overlooked or forgotten spaces that have long outlived their original purpose.
There is also surprisingly less folklore about canals than you might imagine, given the amount you can find about rivers or lakes. It’s not that they’re ‘new’ as a concept. The Romans built the Fossdyke to connect Lincoln to the River Trent in 50 CE, and the Grand Canal of China dates to the 10th century (Johnson n.d.).
Yet in Britain, the real Canal Age didn’t begin until the late 18th century, with canals built to ease the transport of goods. While the railway took over as the transport of choice in the 19th century, the canals remained. Some stayed in use until the 1960s. So what legends or ghost stories have clung to these manmade British waterways? Let’s find out.
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal runs between Birmingham and London, and is Britain’s longest canal. It’s a piecemeal effort, with a series of independent canals connected between 1894 and 1929. ‘Grand Union’ generally refers to the stretch between Birmingham and Brentford. Another branch stretches to Paddington in London (Canal & River Trust 2025b).
A white lady was spotted on the banks of the Grand Union Canal in Brentford. According to legend, she is the ghost of a murder victim. Someone found a woman’s torso in this area, with her legs recovered from a train at Waterloo (The Paranormal Database). Another white lady wanders the tow path near Milton Keynes at night. No one knows who she is, but legend thinks she’s looking for a long-lost lover (Canal & River Hub 2023)
Further north, at Blisworth in Northamptonshire, strange sounds and lights refer to two deaths on the canal in 1861 in the tunnel here. It had just one ventilation shaft, despite its length of 2,813 m. One person suffocated, while another became unconscious and fell into the canal, where they drowned. Witnesses have reported hearing coughing or a splash, as if something fell into the water. Another saw lights in the tunnel, as if made by the original builders (The Paranormal Database). These events coincided with the canal’s bicentenary, and the following year, but don’t seem to have happened again. At least, not in front of witnesses.
Shropshire Union Canal
The Shropshire Union Canal is more of a network than a singular canal. The Llangollen and Montgomery branches stretch into Wales. The canal links the system in the West Midlands with the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal.
A pair of nightingales built a nest near the Newport branch of the Shropshire Union Canal for the first time. People gathered at night to hear them sing, although seven deaths happened in the area after they arrived. After that, people hoped the nightingales never returned (Bennion 1914: 372).
Ghosts also appear at various points along the canal. A Roman centurion guards the entrance to Chester at the old Northgate. Here, the canal intersected with the town moat (Canal & River Trust 2025a). Elsewhere, people hear horse hooves on cobblestones around Market Drayton, even though they see no horses. Some think it is a phantom horse forever pulling ghostly barges along the canal (Canal & River Hub 2023).
Just beyond Market Drayton lies Tyrley middle lock. Those who use the lock in the middle of the night report someone – or something – shutting the lock gates behind their boat. Witnesses also reported the ghost of the American pilot who crashed near the canal during the Second World War at Little Onn (Canal & River Trust 2025a).
The Monkey Man
Yet a hideous creature apparently appears at Bridge 39, outside Norbury. It’s described as the ghost of a boatman who drowned there.
In 1879, a labourer transporting a cart of luggage reached the bridge at around 10 pm one night in January. A black figure with huge eyes jumped out of the hedge beside the road and landed on the horse. When the labourer tried to dislodge it with his whip, the whip passed straight through it. The labourer fell out of the cart, and the horse fled, with the creature still on its back. The man ended up in bed with terror for a few days. When he returned to the scene, he found his whip where he had dropped it. It’s unclear what happened to the horse, cart, or creature.
Another sighting of the so-called Monkey Man dates to the 1980s, when a family passed under the bridge in their longboat. The father looked up as they went beneath the bridge and saw a black, hairy, monkey-like creature looking down at him. It was gone by the time the boat emerged from the other side of the bridge (Canal & River Trust 2025a). I’m not sure how or why a boatman’s ghost would end up taking this form, but let me know if you’ve seen/heard it yourself.
Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal
Speaking of the Welsh branch of this canal, the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal also boasts a few ghostly figures. The canal is a network in the Usk valley in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. Originally, it was the Brecknock & Abergavenny Canal and the Monmouthshire Canal, with the two linked at Pontymoile in 1812.
People sometimes report seeing a figure carrying a lantern at Pontymoile on misty nights. Far from being terrifying, some think he is a former canal worker still keeping the canals safe (Canal & River Hub 2023).
A glowing orb floats along the canal path near Llangattock, although no one knows what it is. Some think it’s another lantern, others think it’s a ghost. Near Llangynidr, people have heard a man crying, and some think he’s grieving his lover who died in the canal (Canal & River Hub 2023).
Regent’s Canal
The Regent’s Canal in London was intended to connect the Grand Junction Canal from Paddington to Limehouse. Doing so meant avoiding the need to offload goods at Paddington and taking them through the streets to the Thames. Famed architect John Nash took the job on while setting out Regent’s Park. Work began in 1812, and the stretch from Paddington to Camden opened in 1816.
The Regent’s Canal overlapped with the River Fleet in Kentish Town, the Fleet being one of London’s buried rivers. Workers buried the Fleet beneath the canal between Kentish Town Road and Camden Road (Bolton 2011: 95).
Lord Byron commented that the area around the point where the Grand Junction and Regent’s Canal met could do with being more like Venice. The council took up his idea in the 1950s, renaming the area Little Venice (The History of London 2025). So if you’ve ever wondered where that name came from, now you know!
Regent’s Canal appears in plenty of news stories, usually due to inquests following drownings. Not all of the stories end badly. One young woman jumped off the bridge into the canal after her husband abandoned her, but her crinoline got stuck in the railings. She hung harmlessly from the bridge until a passing carter rescued her (The Wicklow News-Letter 1864: 3).
How about its ghosts?
Actress Sarah Siddons allegedly haunts one of the banks near St. Mary on Paddington Green Church. There’s no real reason, aside from the fact that she was buried there in 1831. People have reported seeing her in a blue dress and hat, simply standing by the water. She’s described as looking like a mannequin.
People report hearing the cries of a woman near Lisson Grove. Some think it’s a mother grieving her child who died in the canal (Canal & River Hub 2023).
Camden Lock seems popular as a site for ghost sightings. Some report seeing a swimmer struggling in the water before he simply fades away. Elsewhere, people report seeing a woman in Victorian clothing floating above the water. Others claim to have seen a dishevelled man by the canal who vanishes if anyone approaches him (Canal & River Hub 2023). Camden might be a hub for so many sightings due to the higher amount of foot traffic in the area—more people offer more potential witnesses. Yet there are also a lot of pubs in the area, so make of that what you will.
Forth & Clyde Canal
Opened in 1790, this canal linked the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. It fell into disuse in 1963 when the authorities closed the canal. National Lottery funds paid for the Falkirk Wheel to connect the Forth & Clyde and Union canals in 2002, so boats can once again travel from the Clyde to the Forth.
Incidentally, our first ghost story comes from the area near the Wheel. Apparently, people hear bagpipes, even when no piper is around. According to legend, a piper somehow drowned in the canal, and people think it may be his spirit continuing to play from beyond the grave. People hear a ghostly woman singing at night near Kirkintilloch, apparently still serenading her favourite canal.
Meanwhile, people see a ship’s captain in the same area, who apparently drowned after his boat capsized. He issues orders to the crew before he vanishes. Near Auchninstarry, boaters report strange feelings of being watched at dusk, while some even say they’ve seen a mysterious figure on the canal bank who disappears when spotted (Canal & River Hub 2023).
What do we make of these haunted canals?
The relative age of canals compared to existing natural waterways could help to explain the seeming lack of folklore about canals. As places of industry, it’s also possible that they accrued less lore as they were unfamiliar places to the wider population. While canals have been brought back into use as leisure spaces, the passage of time between their heyday and their revival means legends and stories have likely been lost.
By comparison, they’re teeming with ghost stories. Not all stories link to the industrial age of canals; rather the waterways become the sad place where people met their end, either by accident or on purpose. While some of the stories aren’t directly about the canals, instead occurring nearby, others involve the tow path or locks.
Urban canals can sometimes feel a little ‘wrong’ compared to rivers, perhaps due to the stereotype of their stagnant waters being filled with abandoned shopping trolleys. Though rural canals are extremely popular, offering an alternative to busy roads, a slower pace of life, and a different perspective on the countryside that rolls by. With so many people now using the canals again, has there been a corresponding uptick in supernatural activity on these fascinating waterways?
How many ghost sightings were missed by the canals’ fall into disuse? Do those now enjoying the wildflowers along the tow path ever encounter the spectral shades of decades past? Have the canals attracted their own genius loci through their very existence, or are they somehow spiritually dead places compared to their river and stream cousins?
Have you experienced anything strange on these haunted canals? Let me know!
References
Bennion, E. F. (1914), ‘The Nightingale an Ill-Omened Bird’, Folklore, 25 (3), p. 372.
Canal & River Hub (2023), ‘Ghosts on the Canal’, Canal & River Hub, https://canalriverhub.co.uk/ghost-stories-uk-canal-system/. Accessed 7 May 2025.
Canal & River Trust (2025a), ‘Ghostly guide to the Shropshire Union Canal’, Canal & River Trust, https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/features/ghostly-guide-to-the-shropshire-union-canal. Accessed 7 May 2025.
Canal & River Trust (2025b), ‘Grand Union Canal’, Canal & River Trust, https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/canals-and-rivers/grand-union-canal. Accessed 7 May 2025.
History of London (2025), ‘The Regent’s Canal’, The History of London, https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/the-regents-canal/. Accessed 5 May 2025.
Johnson, Ben (no date), ‘The Canals of Britain’, Historic UK, https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/The-Canals-of-Britain/. Accessed 7 May 2025.
Paranormal Database (2025), ‘Ghosts & Folklore from Rivers & Waterways’, The Paranormal Database, https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/riverdata.php?pageNum_paradata=3&totalRows_paradata=138. Accessed 6 May 2025.
Wicklow News-Letter (1864), ‘Epitome of News’, Wicklow News-Letter, 16 April, p. 3.
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