Foulridge Tunnel is on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and was opened in 1796. It has a length of 1,630 yards or 1.5 km. Because of its length, it used to be known as the ‘mile tunnel’ although it measures a little under a mile. Due to poor earth, just under half the was properly tunnelled, with the remainder being built by cut-and-cover. There is no towpath and so boats were originally legged through the tunnel.
Today, entry to the tunnel is, unusually, controlled by traffic lights. Heading west (towards Liverpool),the entry light is green for 10 minutes starting on the hour and heading east (towards Leeds), for 10 minutes starting at half past the hour. In this way, craft have at least 20 minutes to complete the transit.
There is a local story that in 1912 a cow fell into the canal at the western entrance and swam through the tunnel, being revived with brandy at Foulridge at the Hole in the Wall pub (which is actually some 200 metres from the canal).