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Moons Bridge Marina is towards the middle of the Lancaster Canal, near the Market Town of Garstang and set amidst the pleasant farmlands of the North Lancashire. The canal runs for 42 lock free miles through pleasant pasturelands, overlooked for most of the way by the foothills of the Pennines, from which hang gliders often soar.

Just north of Lancaster the sea shore is only a few hundred yards to the west and you can see the sands of Morecambe Bay and across to the magnificent mountains of the Lake District, well worth a visit. There is a short branch to Glasson Docks, which has six locks. The canal is peaceful through most of the year and the lack of locks makes it ideal for those who want a relaxing holiday or anyone who prefers to avoid the hard work of locks.

A round trip from Preston to Lancaster is easily possible in a week. Lancaster is an interesting old County Town, with a castle and other old buildings. Preston and Lancaster have good railway and road links to Scotland and the South of England. All the attractions of the Lancashire coast, including Blackpool and Morecambe, and the fine stone Pennine villages of the Trough of Bowland are never far away.

The Lancaster Canal was built early on in the canal revolution but with a break between the northern section from Preston up to beyond Lancaster and the southern section from Wigan to near Chorley. The problem was the Ribble valley. The canal was never profitable enough for the considerable engineering works, either locks or aqueduct, which would have been needed to cross the deep valley. The southern section became part of the busy Leeds & Liverpool Canal but the isolated northern section became a backwater. The northern terminus at Kendal can no longer be reached, the canal was culveted when the M6 motorway was built across it in the 1960's. However there are serious plans to restore this section up to Kendal over the next few years. The canal also lost its isolation from the rest of the system when a link to the River Ribble was recently opened, though this does involve complicated tidal river cruising to link with the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Tarleton branch.

The canal was engineered by John Rennie, and the bridges and aqueducts are built on his usual massive classical scale. The five arched Lune Aqueduct  is 660ft long and commonly accepted as one of the wonders of the canal world.

The M6 and M55 motorways are only a few minutes drive away.

Leave the M6 at Junction 32 towards Blackpool on the M55 for just a short distance. Take Junction 1 off the M55 and head north up the A6 towards Garstang.

At the first set of traffic lights in Broughton, turn left by the Bay Tree (ex the Golden Ball) Hotel. Follow this road for about 3 miles to a T junction where you turn right. Shortly afterwards take the first right turn down Hollowforth Lane. Moons Bridge Marina is about half a mile down on the right hand side. If you cross the humpback bridge you have gone too far!