Negombo Hamilton Canal boat trips: Dutch canal engineering and Muthurajawela marsh entry?

The Hamilton Canal is a 14.5-kilometer historic inland navigation waterway engineered in 1802 under British Government Agent Gavin Hamilton, linking the Kelani River at Hendala to Negombo Lagoon parallel to the earlier 17th-century Dutch canal. Engineered to transport cinnamon, timber, and agricultural goods without open-sea transit, the canal features granite-faced lock masonry and canal banks. Today, small motorized open boat tours cruise the canal, observing traditional artisanal fishing dinghies (Katu Del), wooden pedestrian footbridges, and mangrove wetland borders fringing the northern Muthurajawela marsh sanctuary.