The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for 6 miles through 18 locks, passing through Ancoats, Holt Town, Bradford, Clayton, Openshaw, Droylsden, Fairfield and Audenshaw to make a head-on junction with the Huddersfield Narrow Canal (formerly the Huddersfield Canal) at Whitelands Basin in the centre of Ashton-under-Lyne.