We said goodbye to Edinburgh on Tuesday morning to make our way over to Oban on the west coast of Scotland. After picking up our van for the week, we loaded up and headed west. We stopped along the way to take in various sites and two certainly qualify for off the beaten path and not on the typical itinerary. Both are near the town of Falkirk.
First up -- giant metal horse heads. Kelpies are shape-changing mythological Scottish creatures that often take the shape of a horse. The artist used Clydesdales as the models for these sculptures. They are located next to the Forth & Clyde Canal and were completed in October 2013. They were pretty cool to see, but we didn't think it was worth it to take a guided tour and go inside of the sculptures. We had our photo op.
Just down the road about four miles is the Falkirk Wheel. To me, this was much more impressive. The Wheel is a rotating boat lift that connects the Union and the Forth & Clyde Canals. This replaces a stair step series of 11 locks that were previously used and took an entire day to traverse. This canal system is important to the transport of goods between the east and west of Scotland, and the new wheel makes the journey much easier and faster. Boats enter the top or bottom of the wheel, and while the wheel rotates, the chamber holding the boat also rotates so the boat always remains level.
The Wheel itself has become something of a tourist attraction and folks can ride on a boat and and experience the Wheel themselves. It is over 100 feet tall, yet only uses 1.5kWh of electricity to rotate 1/2 turn -- the equivalent amount needed to boil 8 kettles of water. The Falkirk Wheel opened in 2002.
Click here to see a video of how it works. The pictures below show how the orange boat starts on top and as the wheel turns, moves to the bottom.
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