Scottish Segway Centre

Segway at the Scottish Segway Centre, Glencoe Activities

The Scottish Segway Centre @ Glencoe Activities
Location: Highlands of Scotland

Get involved:
info@GlencoeActivities.com
+44 (0) 1855 413200

The Amazing Falkirk wheels

The Falkirk Wheel was opened by the Queen in May 2002. Nothing like it has ever been built before anywhere in the world. Boat lifts are nothing new, though the last built in the UK was in 1875. But a rotating boat lift? The result is awe-inspiring and beautiful: the largest piece of functional sculpture you will ever see.

In the pre-railway era the Central Belt of Scotland had two main canals. The Forth and Clyde Canal opened in 1790 and allowed ships to sail the 35 miles between the Clyde at Glasgow to the Forth at Grangemouth. En route they negotiated 40 locks and 32 swing bridges.

The second main canal, the Union Canal, opened in 1822. It started in Edinburgh and followed a contour at 73m above sea level for some 30 lock-free miles through the coalfields it was designed to serve to Falkirk. At Falkirk the two canals were linked together by a ladder of 11 locks that allowed boats on the Forth and Clyde Canal to climb the 35m to the level of the Union Canal.

These canals eventually went the way of most of Britain's canals, and the lines of both were cut by road building and housing development following their closure in 1965. The late 1990s saw a resurgence of interest in the use of canals for leisure, which heightened further when developers began to realise how the presence of a canal could greatly enhance the desirability of an area as somewhere to live and work.

And so was born the idea of the Millennium Link, the complete refurbishment of the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Union Canal. Just about every bridge and lock on the network needed major work, and stretches of canal had been filled in during the construction of 1960s housing estates in both Glasgow and Edinburgh and had to be dug again. And in one place the M8 motorway had to be raised to provide clearance not thought necessary when it had been built over the disused Union Canal.

The total budget for the Millennium Link was £84.5m, £32m of which came from lottery funds. By far the largest single element, £17.5m, was spent tackling the problem that had first been encountered in the 1820s: how to bring the two canals together. The site of the original flight of 11 locks had been redeveloped, and while 11 locks might have been an acceptable solution for professional boatmen in the early 1800s, it was hardly likely to be attractive to the leisure sailors of today.

The solution is the Falkirk Wheel. Boats approaching from the higher Union Canal now use a new length of waterway before descending through two locks. They then progress through a new 168m long tunnel that emerges at the start of a 104m concrete aqueduct. The far end of this opens directly into the upper of the two gondolas of the Falkirk Wheel.

The wheel then rotates, and having descended, what is now the lower gondola opens out into a 100m circular basin whose landscaping carefully conceals its origins as an open cast pit. On one side of this is the beautifully curved structure of the visitor centre. One final lock at the far end of the basin lowers boats to the level of the Forth and Clyde Canal.

Most visitors make their way to the Falkirk Wheel by road rather than by canal. It is well signposted from every approach to the Falkirk area. Entrance to the visitor centre is free, and inside you will find a range of background material on the Millennium Link and on the Falkirk Wheel itself. You will also find a large shop and a cafe selling a range of good value food.

But it is the Falkirk Wheel itself that draws visitors to this spot. It is 35m or 115ft high, the height of eight double-decker buses. Each gondola contains 300 tonnes of water, meaning that the wheel moves 600 tonnes on each lift. But because the gondolas are always in balance (because boats displace their own weight of water) moving them takes surprisingly little power. Up to eight boats can be carried at any one time.

And while many visitors will be happy simply admiring a remarkable structure designed both to look good and function well, the real experience only comes from trying it out for yourself. Details of boat trips are set out on the right. You board your hour long trip in front of the Visitor Centre before being lifted in the wheel to the length of canal through Roughcastle Tunnel. Beyond the tunnel your boat turns, before returning through it and descending via the wheel. Advance booking of boat trips is highly recommended.
Thank you very much for reading have a nice day hope to see you soon. xox
WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ MORE ABOUT SCOTTISH KELPIE?

The Vallum Antonini, Grymisdyke, and the Antonine Wall

The Antonine Wall is the remains of imperial Rome’s north-west frontier in central Scotland and part of the multi-national Frontiers of the Roman Empire UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although the Wall has a lower popular profile than its counterparts in England and Germany, it has nevertheless been the object of significant study, with a research tradition that has resulted in a number of syntheses. These focus on its initial period of construction, functional operation, and abandonment, as well as the unique characteristics that make it ‘the most complex and highly developed of all frontiers constructed by the Roman army.’ This paper looks beyond the period and themes that have characterised the Wall’s research tradition, and situates it within recent discourse on the afterlife of frontiers: an agenda that has been particularly pursued for Hadrian’s Wall. It is argued that traditional research artificially elides time between the present of modern investigation and the past of the Roman period, leaving the intervening post-Roman centuries comparatively unexplored and absent from academic discourse and public presentations of contemporary significance. A new diachronic framework is proposed that accommodates both traditional Roman frontier concerns and emergent themes from new investigation of the Wall’s wider biography.

Darrell J. Rohl (Canterbury Christ Church University)

BENDERLOCH FOX - Album: Reed Adventures

THE ARCTIC PUFFIN IN SCOTLAND
music:
Benderloch Fox
album: Reed Adventures

The History Hut: Romans in Scotland Pt. 3

Antonine Roman Wall Distance Slab Edinburgh Scotland

Tour Scotland video of an Antonine Roman Wall Distance Slab on visit to the National Museum in Edinburgh. Antoninus Pius was the man who gave his name to the Antonine Wall of 142 AD, which runs between the the Rivers Clyde and Forth, extending Roman Britain north from Hadrian's Wall. The wall was designed as a frontier for the empire, and a barrier to raiding Caledonian tribes. The distance slab from Bridgeness near Edinburgh on the Antonine Wall commemorating the construction of the Wall by the Twentieth Legion. On the left side there is a cavalryman spearing some Britons. On the right side a sacrifice to the goddess of Victory is taking place. Four men watch another man in a toga, probably the legionary commander, who is about to sacrifice a pig, sheep and bull. To accompany the ceremony there is music from a flute player.

Mezz Goods Lift, Goods Lifts Halstead Essex

Mezz Lift, Goods Lift, Mezzanine Lift, Mezzanine Lifter, Goods Lift, Platform Lifts, Mezz Goods Lift

Eat Natural MezzLift Specification -- 250kg from Manual Handling Solutions
Maximum Working Load 250kg
Travel 2940mm floor to floor
Platform Size 850mm x 1650mm to suit two trolleys
Platform Guarding 900mm high frames, three sides to suit loading direction
Lift Speed 0.3 m/s
Number of stops 2 (ground and mezzanine)
Power Supply Required 240v, 20amp, 1 phase terminated in a double pole isolator switch
Controls Push to run controls adjacent to the gates at both levels
Drive Type Chain drive, hydraulic motor, Additional independent fall arrest system
Loading Configuration On/Off same side
Pit None -- loading via 50mm ramp
External Shaft Size 1930mm x 1420mm
Shaft Enclosure Self supporting 1 x 1 mesh shaft
Door Type 2000mm Clear height double gate, mesh filled. Lift gates are protected by
electrical interlocks to prevent access to the shaft unless the platform is
docked at the appropriate level
Documentation CE Mark with Declaration of Conformity
Operation and Maintenance Manual issue on completion
LOLER Report of Thorough Examination and Test issued on commission
Training Operator training carried out on completion

Full details from
Manual Handling Solutions (MHS.COM Ltd)
58, Paige Close
Watlington
King's Lynn, Norfolk PE33 0TQ UK
Tel 01553 811977
sales@manualhandlingsolutions.co.uk



Manual Handling Solutions (MHS.COM Ltd) offer bespoke custom designed lifting equipment, from Goods Lifts, Mezzanine Floor Lifts, Mezzanine Goods Lifts, Material Lifts, Pallet Lifts, Warehouse Lift, Platform Goods Lift, Car Lift, Dock Lift, Disabled Lift, Goods Lift, Loading Bay Lift, Work Platforms, Lorry Loaders, Galvanised Lifts, Mezzanine Floor Lift, Split Level Lift, Wheelchair Lift, Stage Lifts, Bin Lift, Wheelie Bin Lift to suit a wide range of different applications. All our goods lifts have a range of options and are built to suit individual customer requirements.
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October Hot Air Balloon Scotland

October 7th video of a Hot Air Balloon taking off at North Inch, Perth, Scotland.