This 4.2-mile circular walk in Scotland includes three incredible feats of engineering: the Falkirk Wheel, Antonine Wall and Forth and Clyde Canal

By Adrienne Wyper

Published: Sunday, 04 June 2023 at 12:00 am

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Journey by boot on this time-travelling trail, spanning engineering history from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the 21st century.

Admire the ancient Greeks’ Archimedes (287-212BCE) principle in action as you marvel at the graceful, rotating movement of the Falkirk Wheel, then appreciate Roman defensive engineering at the Antonine Wall (142AD), before coming bang up to date with a 50-minute boat trip (optional; book in advance) that includes 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.

There are many marked paths around the site, so you can wander at will, catching glimpses of the wheel and the Ochil Hills. If you’re after for something a little longer, why not trying this 4.2-mile circular walk to Bonnybridge?

Looking for more walks in Scotland? Check out our guides to the best walks in the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.

Scotland walks

Explore the Highlands, Scottish Isles, Borders and more with our guide on the best walks in Scotland. Whether you’re looking for long-distance Highland hikes, coastal treks or short river walks and loch-side strolls we have walking routes for all abilities.

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Falkirk Wheel and Antonine Wall walk

4.2 miles/6.8km | 2 hours | easy | 76m

1. Falkirk Wheel

From the car park, walk down towards the wedge-shaped visitor centre, admiring the surprisingly fast and quiet operation of the futuristic Falkirk Wheel. Each boat enters a water-filled gondola, and the weight of water displaced equals the boat’s weight, according to Archimedes’s principle. The Wheel turns, lifting the boats 24 metres, the gondolas open and the boats glide out, through two locks up 11 metres to the Union Canal. The Wheel replaced 11 locks, closed in the 1930s. The Forth and Clyde Canal opened in 1790 and the Union Canal (full name, the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, a clue to its route) opened in 1822, closed in 1965, then reopened in 2001.

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 it, the Forth valley and Ochil hills beyond. Descend and follow signposts to ‘Roman fort’.

2. Antonine Wall

The turf and stone Antonine Wall was the Roman Empire’s most northerly frontier and its most complex, running for 60 km 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, housing 500 soldiers, and the best preserved. Still visible are its rampart, ditches and gateways, and defensive structures called lilia, 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 and Clyde Canal.

3. Bonnybridge

Turn right for the towpath and follow the canal curving to the right. As the landscape becomes more rural, dog roses, waterlilies and other wildflowers appear. After some moored houseboats, the railway line underpasses the canal, then you cross a broad footbridge back to the start.

4. Falkirk Wheel boat trip

A 50-minute boat trip (Adult tickets, £14.50) leaves the circular Falkirk Wheel basin and soars upwards. Then it’s along the aqueduct into the Roughcastle Tunnel (with its movement-sensitive colourful lighting installation) beneath the Antonine Wall, to the mouth of the Union Canal, before returning via the Wheel. Alternatively, you can walk up to the towpath through the tunnel.