Scotland's Canals and Waterways

There were not many canals cut in Scotland, but they were magnificent and wonderfully varied in character. The Caledonian Canal is a sea to sea waterway linking Inverness to Fort William and utilising Loch Ness and the Great Glen. The Crinan Canal in Argyll was a short cut for shipping. The Union Canal created a port in the heart of Edinburgh so that Auld Reekie could get coal in cheaper, while the Monkland Canal in Lanarkshire did the same for Glasgow. The Forth & Clyde Canal enabled boats to go to and from Bowling in the west to Falkirk in the heart of Scotland’s belt of heavy industry. Many other canals were proposed but never became reality. Others, such as the Dingwall Canal, the Aberdeenshire Canal and the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal had already sunk into obscurity a hundred years ago, overtaken by the railways or other factors leading them into disuse. In this compact overview, the history of Scotland’s canals is told and accompanied by evocative old photographs.