SCOTLAND
10 Falkirk Wheel, Stirlingshire
Distance: 4.2 miles/6.8km | Time: 2.5 hours | Grade: Easy | Total ascent: 76m
Span engineering history from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the 21st century on this timetravelling trail.
Admire Archimedes’ (287–212 BCE) principle in action in the graceful rotation of Falkirk Wheel, which opened in 2002. Appreciate Roman defensive engineering at the Antonine Wall (142AD), before marvelling at the 21st-century wonder that is the Falkirk Wheel, the world’s only rotating boat lift, designed to carry narrowboats from the Forth and Clyde Canal up to the Union Canal.
1. START
From the car park, walk down towards the wedge-shaped visitor centre, admiring the fast and quiet operation of the futuristic Falkirk Wheel. Each boat enters a water-filled gondola, and the Wheel turns, lifting the boats 24 metres. The gondolas open and the boats glide out, through two locks, up 11 metres to join the Union Canal. The Wheel replaced 11 locks that closed in the 1930s.
Head uphill on the path signposted ‘Union Canal and Antonine Wall’. Branch off to the right, beneath the Union Canal aqueduct. Before taking the path to the right towards Rough Castle Community Woodland, head to the top of the Wheel and tunnel for panoramic views of the Forth valley and Ochil Hills beyond. Descend and follow signposts to ‘Roman fort’.
2. 0.9 MILES
The turf and stone Antonine Wall was the Roman Empire’s most northerly frontier and its most complex, running for 60km from modern Bo’ness on the Firth of Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde. Rough Castle Fort is the second smallest of the wall’s 16 forts and the best preserved. It was built to house 500 soldiers. Still visible are its rampart, ditches and gateways, and defensive structures called lilia pits: pointed stakes in holes concealed with earth.
Continue west, along the road towards Bonnybridge, before veering off to the right for a tunnel under the Forth & Clyde Canal.
3. 2.3 MILES
Turn right for the towpath and follow the canal curving to the right. The landscape becomes more rural and dog roses, waterlilies and other wildflowers appear. After some moored houseboats, the railway line passes under the canal. You then cross a broad footbridge back to the start.
A 50-minute boat trip leaves the circular Falkirk Wheel basin and soars upwards, before travelling along the aqueduct into the Roughcastle Tunnel, with its movementsensitive colourful lighting installation. The trip continues under the Antonine Wall, to the mouth of the Union Canal, before returning via the Wheel. Adult tickets are £14.50. Alternatively, you can walk up to the towpath through the tunnel.
USEFUL INFO
Starting point
The walk starts at Falkirk Wheel car park (FK1 4RS), £3.50 a day. Bus 6, 6A, 7, 8 from Falkirk Grahamston or Falkirk High railway stations. firstbus.co.uk
Terrain
Gravel/paved paths. The canal towpaths and the paths around the Falkirk Wheel are accessible for wheelchairs and pushchairs. Kissing gates on the Antonine Wall.
Map
OS Explorer 349
Eat/drink
The cafe at the Wheel visitor centre serves cakes, breakfast and snacks.
