Record-breaking tunnel opened to canoeists

The UK's longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel has been opened to canoeists for the first time in its 200-year history.

Standedge Tunnel runs for 3.5 miles (5.6km) under the Pennines between Marsden in West Yorkshire and Diggle in Lancashire.

The Canal & River Trust charity is offering guided canoe trips through the tunnel over the summer.

Volunteer Gordon McMinn, from the trust, said the trips were "a once-in-a-lifetime bucket list opportunity for keen canoeists".

Dubbed one of the seven wonders of the waterways, Standedge Tunnel took 17 years to dig by hand.

A Canal & River Trust spokesperson described it as an "extraordinary feat of engineering".

Sean McGinley, the trust's regional director for Yorkshire & North East, said the tours had been introduced because the charity was "working harder than ever to keep our historic 250-year-old canal network alive".

"This experience is one of the many ways people can help support our work, contributing to the vital funds needed to help us maintain our 2,000-mile network of canals and assets, while discovering this amazing treasure under the Pennines," he added.

A total of 18 one-way paddle trips would be offered between June and August for either two people in a tandem canoe or solo paddlers, with a fee being charged, the trust said.

Mr McMinn said the trips would give participants "a real sense of this remarkable tunnel".

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