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Royal Military Canal

Royal Military Canal

One of the most spectacular follies of the waterway age, the Royal Military Canal stretches for 28 miles across the remote Romney Marsh.

Unlike most canals, this one wasn't built for navigation - it was built to obstruct Napoleon. The Government of the day was convinced this primitive moat would defeat the armies of invasion massing across the Channel.

But Napoleon never came, and the canal was belatedly turned into a commercial waterway. Today, it's a quiet channel running through the Kentish countryside, a secret known to only a few walkers and anglers.

The canal runs from Hythe to Iden Lock, near Rye. It then shares the course of the rivers Rother and Brede for a while, before resuming its own course for the final journey from Winchelsea to Cliff End.