It’s been drizzling for several days, in fact, on and off
for much of the past week or so, so we decided to venture a little further away
today rather than concentrate on Glasgow.
One of the sights we wanted to see was the Falkirk Wheel which has done
the rounds on email and fascinated me.
Only 30 minutes drive away, towards Edinburgh and hopefully a little
clearer than Glasgow. We arrived in
plenty of time to catch the first cruise and it didn’t disappoint. This is Scottish engineering at its finest! Two counter-balanced cradles rotating on a
central axis carrying 500 tons of water each, ferry-boat and 100 or so
passengers, lifted 35 metres into the air onto a canal system eliminating 11
lochs. All this is operated by a small
electric motor producing as much power as ONLY 8 electric kettles!
This is the only one of its kind in the world and has
completely regenerated the canal system in this area of Scotland, which had
fallen into disrepair and neglect. In
fact, the canal system in Britain is becoming very popular as a holiday
destination and hire boats are available all over the country. But this lift system is now being studied by
many other countries and I’m sure many more similar systems will appear around
the world, replacing loch systems.
Although this installation was very expensive – some 75 million pounds
to build and taking 4 years – there is no charge for canal boats to use
it. But the main attraction for me is
the amazing engineering and the genius of the simplicity of the system.
Whilst in the Falkirk area, we also visited the Kelpies,
mythical horses of Scottish folk-lore.
These have been represented by two enormous(30 metres high) stainless steel sculptures
of horse-heads in a brand new park development near the M8 motorway. This park is still under development and will
be a lovely attraction when finished, but the Kelpies are quite spectacular and
well worth a visit.
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| The amazing Falkirk Wheel |
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| Entering the lower cradle |
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| Arriving at the top |
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| The turning basin at the head of the canal system |
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| Moving back into the upper cradle |
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| 500 tons perched 35 metres in the air |
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| The Kelpies |
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| A little damp, but happy. |
Great shots! how about the no charge to use it......and look at the impact on tourism, canal boats etc. It wouldn't get up here cost analysis, payback period wouldn't justify it,unless we put a Toll on.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work,catch some of the rain and bring it home.
It certainly is an awesome thing and the Scots seem to do these things really well. Much of what they do is independent of England and they raise the money with the Scottish lottery - most of this is put straight back into development. Imagine what we could do if our trillions in super were ploughed into infrastructure instead of bonds and overseas investments.
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