Trapped modes around a row of bottom-mounted vertical circular cylinders in a channel are examined. The cylinders are identical, and their axes equally spaced in a plane perpendicular to the channel walls. The analysis has been made by employing the multipole expansion method under the assumption of linear water wave theory. At least the same number of trapped modes is shown to exist as the number of cylinders for both Neumann and Dirichlet trapped modes, with the exception that for cylinders having large radius the mode corresponding to the Dirichlet trapped mode for one cylinder will disappear. Close similarities between the Dirichlet trapped modes around a row of cylinders in a channel and the near-resonant phenomenon in the wave diffraction around a long array of cylinders in the open sea are discussed. An analogy with a mass–spring oscillating system is also presented.