Fortified by my coffee and chocolate bar, I set off walking again. So far I had the place mostly to myself, I’d seen a couple of dog-walkers around Kilcock but by now the fishermen were starting to make an appearance. The mist had also mostly lifted and it was getting to look like quite a fine day. Just out of Kilcock, I came across this shed that back in the days of the building boom had been a helicopter hanger.

The canal, railway and road went in parallel for about 1.5km outside of Kilcock until the road took its leave of us and the route returned to silence.

Not long after this I came upon another lock and this one had a couple of boats by it. I resolved to make it as far as Leixlip before stopping for lunch but was planning on another quite coffee break at Maynooth.

The canal had really long straight sections at this point – a function of the very flat landscape I suppose.

There is an interesting contrast between the style of the railway bridges and that of the canal. As they are right beside each-other for this whole section, it seems that a lot of the canal bridges were just extended into railway bridges but the stonework is quite a bit fancier on the railway half of the bridges which were built about 70 years later.

Just after this bridge, we crossed the Rye water over a little aqueduct which was barely noticeable. It would cause considerably more bother the next time we came across it.

I wasn’t that long getting from Kilcock to Maynooth which are only about 6km apart but as I had such a long section from Enfield to Kilcock, I decided to treat myself to another cup of coffee at Maynooth harbour which was in need of a good clean-out.

After a quick break it was onwards towards Leixlip where I was planning to take my lunch-break. We another few km of very straight sections of canal.

Another one of these dual bridges – they all look strangely lob-sided as the railway half obviously needed more clearance so that side ended up higher.

I came across rather a fabulous pigeon loft near Leixlip – all the mod cons. By now I was getting quite close to my lunch stop – it is quite nice being right by the railway, as you always know exactly where you are. The OS map has the railway mile posts on it so you could tell how long it was to go pretty much exactly when the railway was visible. I rounded the turn coming to Louisa bridge.

I’ve always liked the name Louisa bridge, and can’t find its origin anywhere. Most of the canal bridges are named after investors or directors but there is the odd exception.

Anyway, this is the point for my next stop – the massive Ryewater aqueduct which carries the canal and railway 70 or 80m above the comparatively insignificant  Ryewater river. This massive engineering structure absorbed close to a third of the entire share capital of the original canal company.

The view from the canal side is quite rural although you can see the Intel plant to the left of the area in this shot. The view from the railway is much more built-up but is  more obvious how far above the landscape you are.

I sat down by this ruined cottage for my lunch and had a bit of a rest