
Kelpies and Canals
Posted 2017-06-11 15:06:34In Celtic folklore, kelpies were believed to take the form of fearsome, powerful horses. When one of those beasts was seen, it would be easily identifiable by its white and sky blue colouring and constantly dripping mane.
It was also believed a kelpie could swim,
keeping just one scary eye out of the water before changing its form to become
a beautiful woman, all the better to lure men into a trap.
The Kelpies seen near Falkirk of late may
therefore have been wrongly named as large numbers of people have been getting
up close, unafraid, craning their necks for a better look!
These particular Kelpies, representing two
horses’ heads, are a massive work of art made of thousands of pieces of
stainless steel. Glinting in the sunlight, about 30 metres tall, they stand on
either side of a new extension of the Forth and Clyde Canal.
From some angles, perhaps like the mythical
creatures they have been named after, they appear benign, caught in two vaguely
realistic poses – one head is downturned while the other reaches for the sky.
And possibly because the sculptures are so big, some curious visitors are happy
to pay to take a guided tour to ‘see the horse’s insides’ as it were.
As well as being monumental, complex pieces
of engineering, artist Andy Scott’s Kelpies also commemorate the thousands of
heavy horses that worked with their handlers during the construction of the
Forth and Clyde and Union Canals.
The cutting of the first sod signalling the
start of this endeavour took place in 1768 near Grangemouth at the River Forth
end of the excavation that would become the Forth and Clyde Canal. It would be
1790 before this vast undertaking was completed at the village of Bowling on
the River Clyde. As well as being a
magnificent feat of engineering, this linking waterway between two great rivers
was of immense importance in Scotland’s industrial past.
The Union Canal was built later, mainly to
carry coal and building stone to Edinburgh. Goods and equipment could then be
hauled across country between Glasgow and Edinburgh by barges pulled by heavy
horses while sailing ships were saved a long, often arduous journey, round the
north coast.
For the itinerant labourers who dug
what were essentially elongated trenches, conditions must have been desperate.
Consider the enormity of their task when picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, plus
a few horses and carts were the available tools.
Labouring across this ‘waist of Scotland’ was
nothing new, of course. Centuries earlier, the Roman Army had built a line of
forts roughly parallel to where the Forth and Clyde Canal now runs. To better
these defences against enemies to the north, Emperor Antonius Pius in AD140
ordered the building of a wall. It consisted of a wide, deep ditch and an
earthen rampart interspersed with new forts and platforms for beacons. Though
it was abandoned some 20 years later, the Antonine Wall replaced Hadrian’s Wall
for a time, as the far northern frontier of the Roman Empire.
After circling the Kelpies, you might want to
extend your walk or cycle (the sculpture is no distance from the Helix Park car
park) along that part of the Forth and Clyde Canal in the immediate area, or
explore the extensive paths in the newly created Helix Park.
Another option is to take a bus, or drive the
four miles, for a look at the remains of the Antonine Wall on your way to the
iconic Falkirk Wheel. In the passing you might notice the Union Inn, sited
where the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Union Canal were first connected by a
flight of locks at Lock 16.
It was from the basin at Lock 16 that the
Charlotte Dundas, the world’s first practical steamboat, headed for Glasgow in
1803.
By 1836 the number of passengers travelling
on the canals had risen to 200,000. Just as today, some of them would have
enjoyed a meal or perhaps a small libation in the Union Inn beside Lock 16
before continuing their journey.
Sailing between Edinburgh and Glasgow took
around 7 hours in boats called ‘swifts.’ Slower night boats, the ‘hoolets’
(Scots word for owls) were popular with honeymoon couples.
In 2002, the No.16 Lock gates were superseded
by the Falkirk Wheel when the world’s first rotating boatlift was opened by
H.M. Queen Elizabeth. Like the Kelpies, the Falkirk Wheel is a marvellous feat
of engineering. From a basin off the Forth and Clyde Canal, it can lift 8 boats
at a time (more usually 1 boat full of visitors) and deposit them some 25
metres higher on the Union Canal.
While gazing up at this mechanical marvel,
also keep in mind there may be objects still more mysterious overhead. This
area, particularly the town of Bonnybridge, west of Falkirk, has a reputation
for witnessing many occurrences of unidentified flying objects.
The canal towpaths can be walked in sections
or on one long trek from end to end. Considering that the waterway runs through
some of what was Scotland’s industrial heartlands, much of it is now
gratifyingly rural with expansive views. From the Union Canal towpath you can
look over Falkirk to a distant, silver sliver of the River Forth, to the Ochil
Hills beyond and further still to the peaks of the Highlands.
Swans and herons and a variety of ducks seem
unperturbed by passing footsteps while stretches of woodland on each side are
alive with noisy birdlife. Anglers are welcome, as are other water users such
as rowers and canoeists.
In places, speeding trains on the nearby
rails are reminders of the progress that led to the early demise of these
canals. But in a recent turnaround, for the first time in years, material has
been transported by barge instead of by road or rail.
With the opening of the new Forth and Clyde
Canal extension which runs between the Kelpies, the waterway is now ready for
vessels arriving from or making for the North Sea and beyond.
The Kelpies were officially opened to the
public on the Easter Weekend of 2014 with a spectacular sound show and late
evening blaze of lights.
Days later, the John Muir Way, running
between the towns of Helensburgh in the west and Dunbar in the east, was also
opened.
Now this latest long distance trail which
makes use of some sections of the Union and Forth and Clyde Canals is ready for
walkers, cyclists, or riders on horseback.
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