Day 5 - Falkirk Wheel & Kelpies

Another good night sleep and we both woke around 7am. The usual ritual of showering and then breakfast. Today we also had to pack up van as we were driving out rather than using public transport.

At 930 we arrived at Tesco to purchase a few essentials though couldn’t get any wine as it was before 10am due to Scottish laws. We then headed to the Falkirk Wheel.

This is the world’s one and only rotating boat lift. It connects the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Union Canal 35 metres above in one half rotation that takes 4.5 minutes.

It opened in 2002 and replaced a system of 11 locks. It is perfectly balanced so that it only uses the equivalent energy of boiling 8 kettles to perform each half rotation. All very clever and quite a marvel to watch but it does beg the question why aren’t there any more?

We had booked a boat trip at 1040 for £17.95 each. The boat travelled up in the lift, went along the higher canal, through the Rough Castle Tunnel, turn around , return through tunnel and then come back down in the lift. This would take about an hour.

It was very interesting with commentary along the way. The boat was full of grey haired retirees who took all the window seats and the didn’t take any photos. Jonathan and I were consigned to two middle aisle seats, though I only got half my seat due to my neighbour encroaching.

We were able to move around so as we completed the first half rotation I walked to the front to take some photos. I soon retreated when a lady sat there started coughing her guts up and had to have two people rub her legs to try and calm her enough to be able to breathe again.

Jonathan was ‘enjoying’ listening to Expert number 1 who was captivating his friends with his wisdom about the wheel. Expert number 2 was in front of me and was insisting it was an electric boat (it is) instead of a diesel boat (no one said it was).

The half rotation is very smooth and in less than 5 minutes we were at the top with views across to the Kelpies … though it took a little help from our guide to find them.

We then travelled through the 180 metre long tunnel illuminated with green and blue lights. Once through we had turn around and head back through the tunnel.

The view at the front of the boat was across Falkirk and Stirling, and up to the Ochil Hills. It was beautiful. We took as many photos as possible over the grey heads.

We did have a moment when the lady in front sat down and completely missed her seat so was sat on the floor laughing. Several people rushed to help her up and she kept saying but they just dragged her up and carefully sat her down properly. She was rather red faced.

We had a smooth trip back down and once disembarked, Jonathan put his drone up so he could capture the next half rotation of the wheel.

Our plan was to walk along the canal to the Kelpies which should have been just under 5 miles. The first part followed the towpath past locks 11 to 16 and was very picturesque. It was spitting slightly but still warm.

Lock 16 was in Falkirk and we were unfortunately diverted away from towpath as the canal had been dewatered. Turns out a large part of the canal had been dewatered for some time as it was completely overgrown. Alas our walking route app didn’t know this.

At times we could walk along the canal, with a high fence stopping anyone get too near. At one point we were merrily marching down the path only to find it lead to the back gate of St Mungo’s Catholic School.

We had to abruptly retrace our steps and head through the housing estate where only every other house seemed to own a lawn mower.

We were then able to get back to the towpath but with a high fence on one side and a large industrial estate on the other! Not the greatest of views and this path called Bankside, went straight for over a mile.

We had already passed the 5 mile mark now and could not see any glimpse of the Kelpies. We approached the last part of the towpath to find it was all blocked off completely!

We had to follow the A9 which took a convoluted circular route down to a roundabout before turning sharply signposted The Kelpies. Finally we entered into the Helix Park, home of Kelpies only to have to follow the World’s Twistest path. I was not amused!

By the time the Kelpies finally came into view it was starting to rain a little, I was totally knackered and therefore underwhelmed. Jonathan tried to cheer me up by heading immediately to the cafe and purchased a couple of coffees and sweet treats.

During this time the spitting rain stopped and we had blue sky starting to show through. We walked all around the two horse’s heads taking photos from all angles. They are quite amazing. The sound of the birds roosting at the top echos through them. The metal sides glimmer in the sunlight. In the end I was quite impressed.

We started the long walk back pausing for Jonathan to put his drone up again. Whilst he was playing I googled how to get back to The Wheel without walking another 7 miles. Turns out there was a bus in approximately 20 minutes from the industrial estate to central Falkirk where we could eventually get back to the open part of the canal towpath.

I was expecting the F14 bus, but alas the F14A turned up. Must be nearly the same surely! We ended up getting tickets for the train station only to find the route went quite near to Lock 16. I checked with the driver if we could travel a bit further in on and she said no problem.

I started to relax though still watching the route on Google maps. It was when we started touring some high rise out of town buildings I got concerned. The driver then apologised, stating she forgot she was driving the F14A (which didn’t go near Lock 16) and not the F14 (which does). Another quick google and we decided to get off at the High Train Station as this seemed to link to the Union Canal, the one at the top of The Wheel.

It was a gamble that paid off. It was a lovely 2.5 mile walk along the towpath next to a pretty water filled canal with no high fence or industrial estates. We only met a couple of cyclists.

We did indeed find ourselves at the top of the Wheel and had to walk through the Rough Castle Tunnel we had travelled through on the boat in the morning. We were also able to take some beautiful photos across the lock.

We arrived back at the van at 515 having walked just under 10 miles (even with the bus journey!). We had dinner booked at the campsite for 6pm so we set off immediately.

We got back at 545 so I nipped into the restaurant and pushed our reservation back to 630 so we could at least look half human after a shower.

We have a super meal. I had panko prawns with a mango and chilli dip, followed by chicken fajitas. Jonathan had bruschetta followed by a burger with haggis topping and chips. It was all delicious. We finished the meal with a couple of Tia Maria coffees.

We waddled back to the van and couldn’t get the TV to work so Jonathan read whilst I wrote blog.
We went to bed about 10 pm absolutely shattered.Read more