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The Falkirk Wheel:
Turning into Jubilee lock from the Forth & Clyde canal to ascend
into the Falkirk Wheel mooring basin - with a view from Willow's home
mooring.
The Wheel gets illuminated at night
Above left Willow routinely enters the gondola at the bottom of the
wheel, squeezing in between two hire boats...but not all boats have a
passage that goes to plan. Above right photo was taken in 2012 when the
Olympic Torch was ceremonially being brought down the Wheel on a F&C
Canal Association vessel. Celebratory fireworks had been attached to
the Gondola and Scottish Canals had even newly painted it - trouble was
nobody thought to check if the new paint was fire retardent....oops!
Views from Willow at the top of the Wheel
And this quirky aqueduct linking the
land at the Antonine Wall, across the void, to the top of the Wheel
where the waterway stops - subject to frequent strong side winds, this
structure often had to be crossed at full speed in Willow, to maintain
safe steerage - then with a very necessary need to stop, a 25 tonne
Willow needed to be brought very abruptly to a halt, once in the gondola
- made things interesting.
To climb up onto the Union canal from the Wheel, the canal has to cross
the Antonine Wall (the canal goes through it via a tunnel).
Through the tunnel we arrive at the staircase locks as the final part of
the modern 'mileneum link' between the Forth & Clyde and Union
canals.
Above the locks the canal soon reaches the Falkirk Tunnel. Before the
winter of 2013 (when Scottish Canals carried out a so called upgrade)
the Falkirk Tunnel had a quite stunning interior.
Emerging from the tunnel the canal adopts a rural nature from Velore
Bridge to Linlithgow (apart from a short spell through urban Polmont).
Just before reaching Linlithgow the canal crosses the the River Avon
valley by aqueduct. This aqueduct is the highest in Scotland (and second
highest in the UK to the Pontcysyllte, on the Llangollen Canal). For
me, the view from the Avon Aqueduct is far more dramatic/attractive.
Soon after the Avon Aqueduct we reach Linlithgow with it's historic canal basin and even older Linlithgow Palace. Most of the shots from a canal perspective.
East of Linlithgow, the canal resumes a rural outlook to the next aqueduct, this time over the River Almond.
Following on East from the R.Almond, the canal soon finds Ratho and then
the outskirts of Edinburgh. Mooring just off the Lothian Road, I've
included a few of Edinburgh - and a much bigger vessel, Royal Yacht
Britannia....
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