Overview of Forth and Clyde Canal

Stretching 35 miles (56 km) from the village of Bowling on the River Clyde in the west of Scotland to the large town of Grangemouth on the River Forth, the Forth and Clyde Canal was built during the later part of the 18th Century (begun on 10th June, 1768) and operated until 1st January, 1963. The canal was re-opened by HRH Prince Charles in 2001, having been the subject of a major restoration as part of the Millennium Link project. The centre-piece of this project is the Falkirk Wheel, a spectacular boat-lift built to transfer barges between the levels of the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals at Falkirk.

The Forth and Clyde was the first canal built in Scotland, linking its two major waterways for trade and transport and providing an additional three-mile (5 km) branch to central Glasgow at Port Dundas. Created to accommodate sea-going boats, its 39 locks are over 18m (60 feet) long and nearly 6m (20 feet) wide; its highest point of 48m (156 feet) is between Banknock (Wyndford Lock) and Glasgow (Maryhill). The engineers who built the canal included John Smeaton (1768-73), Robert MacKell (1773-79) and Robert Whiteworth (1785-90), with no work carried out in the period 1777-85 during much of the American Revolution. The first steamboat, the Charlotte Dundas, carried out trials on the canal in 1802, and the Forth and Clyde was also one of the first canals to carry vehicles such as carts and railway wagons. In 1868 it was bought by Caledonian Railway and its present owner is British Waterways.

The Forth and Clyde Canal links Grangemouth, Falkirk, Bonnybridge, Castlecary, Twechar, Kirkintilloch, Lenzie, Maryhill (Glasgow), Clydebank, Erskine and Bowling.