Forth and Clyde Canal, Kilsyth in Scotland, UK
The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. It is 35 miles (56 km) long and it runs from the River Carron at Grangemouth to the River Clyde at Bowling, and had an important basin at Port Dundas in Glasgow.
Successful in its day, it suffered as the seagoing vessels were built larger and could no longer pass through. The railway age further impaired the success of the canal, and in the 1930s decline had ended in dormancy. The final decision to close the canal in the mid 1960s was made due to maintenance costs of bridges crossing the canal exceeding the revenues it brought in. However, subsidies to the rail network were also a cause for its decline and the closure ended the movement of the east-coast Forth River fishing fleets across the country to fish the Irish Sea. The lack of political and financial foresight also removed a historical recreational waterway and potential future revenue generator to the town of Grangemouth. Unlike the majority of major canals the route through Grangemouth was drained and back filled to create a new carriageway for port traffic.
The M8 motorway in the eastern approaches to Glasgow took over some of the alignment of the canal, but more recent ideas have regenerated the utility of the canal for leisure use.
Bowling harbour - Forth & Clyde Canal - Scotland
This beautiful wee harbour at the point where the Forth and Clyde Canal goes into the River Clyde. Now with a cafe and small craft shops it is an ideal place to visit and relax.
Glasgow to Edinburgh (Portobello beach) on the Forth & Clyde + Union canal
A video made for fun from my ride this weekend.
Recorded: 2016-03-26.
Special thanks to Cheri, for letting me borrow her camera; a Polaroid Cube.
Music credits:
bensound.com:
- rumble
freemusicarchive.org:
- Broke For_Free - Night Owl(extended)
- Broke For_Free - Something Elated
- Dexter Britain - Waking Up Instrumental
- The Kyoto Connection - Hachiko The Faithtful Dog
- Dexter Britain - The Time To Run Finale (shortened)
Forth & Clyde Canal at Clydebank, Scotland
Barge Boat Cruising on the Forth and Clyde Canal Scotland
Tour Scotland video of an old Dutch Barge boat cruising on visit to the Forth and Clyde Canal. This Scottish canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. It is 35 miles long and it runs from the River Forth near Grangemouth to the River Clyde at Bowling, and had an important basin at Port Dundas in Glasgow. Successful in its day, it suffered as the seagoing vessels were built larger and could no longer pass through. The railway age further impaired the success of the canal.
Fred Dibnah @ The Falkirk Wheel - Union and Forth & Clyde Canals
1962 Forth and Clyde canal
Before it was closed to navigation, Fyfe Robertson took one last journey to explain its history.
Originally broadcast 27 March 1962
Falkirk Wheel
A real time view of the Falkirk Wheel turning 180 degrees. The wheel joins two canals and gives access to Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is an engineering masterpiece and a must visit attraction in Scotland.
The Falkirk Wheel. Scotland.
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The lift, named after the nearby town of Falkirk in central Scotland, opened in 2002. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s as part of the Millennium Link project.
The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish Enterprise Network, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Millennium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.
The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft), but the Union Canal is still 11 metres (36 ft) higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel. Boats must also pass through a pair of locks between the top of the wheel and the Union Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom, the other being the Anderton boat lift.
The two canals served by the wheel were previously connected by a series of 11 locks. With a 35-metre (115 ft) difference in height, it required 3,500 tonnes (3,400 long tons; 3,900 short tons) of water per run and took most of a day to pass through the flight.
By the 1930s these had fallen into disuse, and the locks were dismantled in 1933. The Forth and Clyde canal closed at the end of 1962, and the by the mid-1970s the Union canal was filled in at both ends, rendered impassable by culverts in two places and run in pipes under a housing estate. The British Waterways Board (BWB) came into existence on 1 January 1963, the day the Forth and Clyde was closed, with the objective of finding a broad strategy for the future of canals in the United Kingdom.
In 1976, the BWB decided after a meeting with local councils that the Forth and Clyde canal, fragmented by various developments, was to have its remaining navigability preserved by building new bridges with sufficient headroom for boats and continuing to maintain the existing locks. Restoration of sea-to-sea navigation was deemed too expensive at the time, but there were to be no further restrictions on its use. A 1979 survey report documented 69 obstructions to navigation, and sought the opinions of twenty interested parties to present the Forth and Clyde Local (Subject) Plan in 1980.
Stirling, Stirling and Falkirk, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe
Stirling is a city in central Scotland. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its merchants and tradesmen, the bridge and the port. Located on the River Forth, Stirling is the administrative centre for the Stirling council area, and is traditionally the county town of Stirlingshire. Proverbially it is the strategically important Gateway to the Highlands. It has been said that Stirling, like a huge brooch clasps Highlands and Lowlands together. Similarly he who holds Stirling, holds Scotland is often quoted. Stirling's key position as the lowest bridging point of the River Forth before it broadens towards the Firth of Forth, made it a focal point for travel north or south. When Stirling was temporarily under Anglo-Saxon sway, according to a 9th-century legend, it was attacked by Danish invaders. The sound of a wolf roused a sentry, however, who alerted his garrison, which forced a Viking retreat. This led to the wolf being adopted as a symbol of the town as is shown on the 1511 Stirling Jug. The area is today known as Wolfcraig. Even today the wolf appears with a goshawk on the council's coat of arms along with the recently chosen motto: Steadfast as the Rock. Once the capital of Scotland, Stirling is visually dominated by Stirling Castle. Stirling also has a medieval parish church, the Church of the Holy Rude, where, on 29 July 1567, the infant James VI was anointed King of Scots by the Bishop of Orkney with the service concluding after a sermon by John Knox. The poet King was educated by George Buchanan and grew up in Stirling. He was later also crowned King of England and Ireland on 25 July 1603, bringing closer the countries of the United Kingdom. Modern Stirling is a centre for local government, higher education, tourism, retail, and industry. The mid-2012 census estimate for the population of the city is 36,440; the wider Stirling council area has a population of about 93,750. One of the principal royal strongholds of the Kingdom of Scotland, Stirling was created a royal burgh by King David I in 1130. In 2002, as part of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, Stirling was granted city status.
The Falkirk Wheel
As the world's first and only rotating boat lift, The Falkirk Wheel is quite simply unique.
The Falkirk Wheel is the spectacular centrepiece of the £84.5 million 'Millennium Link', the UK's largest canal restoration project, developed by British Waterways to reconnect the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal, re-establishing east to west coast access for boats.
A Walk Around The Falkirk Wheel, Falkirk, Scotland
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The lift, named after the nearby town of Falkirk in central Scotland, opened in 2002. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s as part of the Millennium Link project.
The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish Enterprise Network, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Millennium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.
The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft), but the Union Canal is still 11 metres (36 ft) higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel. Boats must also pass through a pair of locks between the top of the wheel and the Union Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom, the other being the Anderton boat lift.
Bowling Harbour on the River Clyde and Forth & Clyde Canal
Bowling Harbour was completed in 1849 at the western terminus of the Forth and Clyde Canal. It is rectangular with protecting breakwaters and a stone-built quay. The western part was used mainly for the laying up of vessels for repairs at Scott's shipyard, of pleasure steamers during the winter. The harbour was served by both the North British Railway and the Caledonian Railway [ex Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire].
Forth and Clyde Canal at Westerton in Scotland (13th January 2012)
Hi there! This is a video I recorded on a very cold day of the Forth & Clyde Canal at Westerton, near Bearsden. I had made a video of this about a year previously..
..however on this video, I went the totally opposite way. Hope you like it! Sorry about the Sun beaming in there!
Barge Docking on the Forth and Clyde Canal Scotland
Tour Scotland video of a Barge docking at Auchinstarry on the Forth and Clyde Canal on visit to North Lanarkshire.
Falkirk Wheel - Scotland
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The lift is named after Falkirk, the town in which it is located. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project.
The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish Enterprise Network, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Millennium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.
The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft), but the Union Canal is still 11 metres (36 ft) higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel. Boats must also pass through a pair of locks between the top of the wheel and the Union Canal.
The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom, the other being the Anderton Boat Lift.
(Information - Wikipedia)
Falkirk Wheel - Falkirk, Falkirk District, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Created at TripWow by TravelPod Attractions (a TripAdvisor™ company)
Falkirk Wheel
This 35-meter-high rotating boat lift, the world's first, connects the Forth & Clyde and Union c****s.
Read more at:
Travel blogs from Falkirk Wheel:
- ... Breakfast was good though In saying that, after breakfast we headed off to a mechanical marvel close by, the Falkirk wheel ...
- ... been well taken care of and looked after Today we drove to right into Falkirk and took a ride on the famous Falkirk Wheel !! Wasn't too scary even for me!! In traditional scottish nature we headed to the pub for a friday ...
Read these blogs and more at:
Photos from:
- Falkirk, Falkirk District, Scotland, United Kingdom
Photos in this video:
- Falkirk Wheel 3 by Nahury1 from a blog titled Falkirk Wheel
- Falkirk Wheel 4 by Nahury1 from a blog titled Falkirk Wheel
- Falkirk Wheel 5 by Nahury1 from a blog titled Falkirk Wheel
- Falkirk Wheel 2 by Nahury1 from a blog titled Falkirk Wheel
- Falkirk Wheel 1 by Nahury1 from a blog titled Falkirk Wheel
- Falkirk Wheel by Paula_rod from a blog titled Newcastle on Tyne to Falkirk, Scotland!
Forth and Clyde canal
Paul Carter of the Friends of Kelvin Valley Park describes the background to the reopening of the Forth and Clyde canal. Video by Rob Kay, September 2006
Old Photographs Of The Forth and Clyde Canal Scotland
Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of the Forth and Clyde Canal which opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. It is 35 miles long and it runs from the River Carron at Grangemouth to the River Clyde at Bowling, and had an important basin at Port Dundas in Glasgow. Between 1789 and 1803 the canal was used for trials of William Symington's steamboats, culminating in the Charlotte Dundas, the first practical steamboat built at the shipyard in Grangemouth by Alexander Hart.
Union Canal - Edinburgh
Follow me on Facebook at London Boat Girl
Follow me on Twitter @rainbowlollies
Patreon