The Coalisland navigation is one of the shorter waterways being about four and a half miles long. In conjunction with Ducarts Canal it linked the River Blackwater and Lough Neagh to the Tyrone Coalfields at Coalisland. Although short, it rises about 250 feet or 76 metres through seven locks and a series of dry hurries/wherries with quite an extensive basin at Coalisland. The  distance of two and a half miles to the coalfields at Drumglass from Coalisland was fraught with difficulty. Tub boats were floated onto cradles and pulled by horses up the slope. Unfortunately this ambitious scheme  was never really that successful. Sadly the Tyrone coal deposits proved to be of inferior quality and all too often coal was carried in the opposite direction. Despite the difficulties experienced the canal from Lough Neagh via the River Blackwater to Coalisland was a very successful enterprise with many thousands of tons of goods being carried by barge in both directions.