Information for boaters - River Great Ouse

Some locks on the River Great Ouse are ‘reversed’ during floods and high flows. This closes the affected locks to navigation. The Environment Agency strongly recommends that you don’t attempt to navigate during these periods.

The River Great Ouse and its tributaries provide approximately 255 kilometres of navigable waterway. It is the fourth longest river in the United Kingdom and flows through 5 counties:

It is navigable from Bedford to the Wash at King’s Lynn with connections to the River Nene via the Middle Level.

You can see the latest navigation notices on the River Great Ouse Mapping tool.

Before you use the waterway you should read the Anglian navigation byelaws

You can find out more about the River Great Ouse by:

If you want to organise an event on the River Great Ouse you should read River Great Ouse Event Organisor Information (PDF, 91.9 KB, 2 pages).

You can apply for an event using the Anglian Waterways event form

On a river or waterway it is the person in charge of the boat (boat master) responsibility to ensure the boat can pass safely through the bridge. Sometimes, for example with bridge arches the clearance may be uneven and greater at some points across the channel than others. We usually state typical heights of the arches of bridges. These heights are usually the ones with the greatest clearance but other parts of the bridge may have much lower clearance.