Wonderful canal boating Glasgow - Falkirk - Edinburgh (UK Boat Hire)

Member Name: dmandrew

Product:	UK Boat Hire
Date:	16/05/09 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very nice boats and lovely scenery

Disadvantages: None

UK Boathire might sound a bit like a faceless conglomerate, but in reality it is an umbrella name for about four different boat hire companies. We hired therefore from Alvechurch Boats, which you book through UK Boathire. There's a very useful website at www.ukboathire.com
One great thing is that they reward you for previous bookings. Last year, we hired from Anderton in Cheshire, and, as a result, got £100 off the price for this year.

You start at the magnificent Falkirk Wheel. Boaters who have been on the Anderton Lift will have some idea of what to expect here, except that this is a very recently built construction. The Falkirk Wheel links the Union Canal with the Forth and Clyde Canal. Originally, the canals met at the foot of a flight of eleven locks, that were followed by another 16 down to Grangemouth. Both canals fell into disrepair and eventual abandonment in the 20th century. Marvellously, they were restored and improved at the turn of the millennium, with some new canal cuts and a number of new bridges made. Instead of the arduous business of restoring the flight of eleven locks, it was decided to make a boat lift - the Falkirk Wheel. It's unique in the world - a boat lift where the boats travel around the circumference of a vertical circle. It's so skilfully built that it only takes the power equivalent of that of a few electric toasters to move boats up and down.

The handover from UK Boathire explains all you need to know about operating the boat. We have been on quite a lot of narrowboat holidays, but it's always helpful to know the ins and outs of a boat you have not steered before. Unlike in England, where you generally operate all of the locks and moveable bridges yourself, in Scotland it is all done for you by British Waterways men, so there is no specific lock tuition. We enjoy working locks, but this made quite a nice change.
At the start, there are three choices of direction - east and down 16 locks to Falkirk, west and 24 miles to Glasgow, or south and then east up the Falkirk Wheel and then 32 miles to Edinburgh. Almost the first thing you do if you are heading up the Wheel is to go through a lock. Then there is the Wheel, from which the views are very rewarding, even though you only go up about 80 feet. Then a short modern tunnel and a staircase of two more locks, and that's it all the way to Edinburgh.

At the beginning of the top section of canal, you enjoy fine views over and beyond Falkirk and Grangemouth, with its huge oil refineries. There's another tunnel, 696 yards long, followed by the Laughin' and Greetin' Bridge, with its two stone faces. The Young Offenders' Institution is rather grim, but you are soon away from houses and into quieter areas of country. There's a nice mooring about two hours from the top of the Wheel.
Mooring in general on the Union Canal is a bit tricky. Normally on canals, it's easy to moor wherever you want, but the sides of the Union Canal are often quite shallow, making it difficult to get close enough to the bank. It's good then that British Waterways (BW) provides a fair number of places to moor, some of which are specially built pontoons.

The town of Linlithgow is a good place to stop and explore. Mary Queen of Scots was born in the Palace there, and the parish church next to it is very fine, and is a landmark from a couple of miles away. We visited there on Palm Sunday, and it was well attended. There is also a little lake - Linlithgow Loch. Quite soon after this we got our first glimpses of the two Forth Bridges. The canal then wanders quite a bit, in the fascinating way that canals have when they follow contours. At times, you are steering your boat almost due west, when Edinburgh is in the opposite direction.
A feature for about the next ten miles is the huge piles of spoil from cannel coal extraction . These artificial pink hills are known as shale bings - some have been colonized by vegetation and startto look natural. You start to become aware of the motorway (M8) as you get within ten miles of Edinburgh, but it never becomes unbearably obtrusive. Planes fly overhead from Edinburgh Sirport, and trains are often seen. The canal goes over many aqueducts, including three that are the equal of the celebrated one at Chirk on the Llangollen Canal. From one, we had a wonderful view of a steam hauled passenger train on the Almond Viaduct a mile or two away. Past the Scottish National Climbing Centre, there is a good pub - the Bridge at Ratho, and a quiet mooring.

You are then approaching Edinburgh, which you first do after the shock of crossing the busy A720. The housing has seen revival here, in an part where the canal has many new bridges. Once near to the end of the canal, you telephone BW in order for the friendly bridge operator to do his stuff at Leamington Lift Bridge, after which there is a very pleasant canal basin to moor up in.

Edinburgh, of course, is a city where you could spend a week exploring.

Going the other way from Falkirk sends you towards Glasgow on the forth and Clyde Canal. This is characterised by a variety of movable bridges - lift, swing and bascule - all of which require telephone calls, best done the day before. However, once you have established contact with the BW men on the ground, they save you the trouble of a further call by delivering messages themselves. All the men were very helpful, both on the bridges and four locks, and also on advice about mooring, especially in Glasgow. A feature of this part of the journey is the Antonine Wall, built as the northernmost frontier of Roman Britain. Some of it runs through back gardens in Falkirk. Most of it is on the top of hills, and virtually all of it is easy to reach. The wall is down, but the ditches are still there, as are many of the great stones.

One memorable section of the canal, which is wider than most in England, is an extra wide bit over Dullatur Bog, between Bonnybridge and Kilsyth. This bit is an almost dead straight two miles, and as wide as a motorway. Marvellously, about half way along, there is an isolated pontoon mooring, only reachable by boat. We spent the night there, and were rewarded in the morning by the sight of two black herons in a tree, and water on the canal as smooth as glass.

Another mooring was near the marina at Auchinstarry, where there were a good number of other boats to enjoy, and another nice pub and restaurant.
Near to Glasgow, there is Stockingfield Junction. Turn left for Glasgow, and you come in past Partick Thistle's football ground. Nearing the end of this canal arm, there is the sudden reward of marvellous rooftop views across the city. There is a bascule bridge to get opened (bizarrely, although this is just outside the Head Office of BW Scotland, you still have to ring up centrally to get someone to open it). That's a bit daft! The moorings at the end of the arm at Spiers Wharf felt very secure.
You could spend another week exploring Glasgow!

On our way back, we cruised to the top of the Maryhill Locks, a beautifully made flight of five leading to another stone aqueduct.
Once back at Falkirk, there was time to walk down the 16 locks to the junction with the River Carron, which was very exciting.
Narrowboating is a fantastic thing to do for a holiday, or even for a lifetime. I can thoroughly recommend hiring form UK Boathire. We had a lovely 45-footer, which behaved very well and was very comfortable. The Scottish canals are beautiful and not too busy - indeed they are probably a bit underused, waiting for more people to discover them.

One strange footnote - we must have gone past at least 50 footballs that had ended up in the canal!

Summary: A great way to travel betweenScotland's two big cities