The Falkirk Wheel is a boat lift connecting the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal.
Built in time for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, it lifts boats 35 metres up. It replaces a flight of eleven locks that were abandoned in the 1950s.
It cost a total of £85M, and is a superb piece of functional engineering.
As a place to visit I highly recommend it. As well as the lift itself there are practical activities for the children....including this hands-on (well, feet-on) model of the Archimedes screw.
Of course we had to take the boat trip. It's not miles long but you get to go up and down the lift and chug through Roughcastle Tunnel, twice. Our craft was named Archimedes.
We were the two youngest people on board. A bus trip of VERY old folk were block booked on our trip. Man, them fogies was rowdy. But the boat trip and the whole place were absolutely brilliant.
Sam wasn't sure how the locks worked, so it was cool that a holiday boat came chugging into the lift while we were there. Here it is approaching lock 3, the last before the lift basin.
No pressure on the new driver eh? Only about 100 people watching as he entered the lock....
The paddles were opened, the lock filled, and here comes the boat!
Which then steamed out of the lock and towards the lift. It was sharing with one of the passenger boats.
And into the gondola she goes!
When both gondolas are filled with the right amount of water the lift only needs enough energy to boil eight kettles to operate. Mind-boggling.
And here they are, half-way up. Falkirk Wheel is a lovely place to visit, and Sam says it is his fave place so far this holiday.
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