Crossword Genius

Canal flowing around area in old capital (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ducat

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'old capital' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to property as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'canal flowing around area in' is the wordplay.
'canal' becomes 'duct' ('duct' can be a synonym of 'canal').
'flowing around area' becomes 'a' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'duct' enclosing 'a' is 'DUCAT'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ducat that I've seen before include "Former European gold coin" , "ready no longer" , "Mad; fruit" , "Formerly a gold coin of several European countries" , "Old Italian coin" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times (Crosaire) and The Irish Times.
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