Scotland Day 10 (24 June 2018)

We started the morning in Edinburgh, but shortly made our way out of the city towards Falkirk. They have a giant rotating boat lift that allows you to transport your boat on lochs connecting the east to the west coast of Scotland. 

In Falkirk (famous for making gun cannons used all around the world), they have a giant Falkirk Wheel that lifts a boat up connecting the Union Canal to the Forth & Clyde Canal. It takes the power of heating only eight tea kettles to lift the rotating boats up and down to the two canals, in just under five minutes’ time. It can lift 250 tons of water, boat, steel, people, etc. it is a pretty impressive engineering feat using the Archimedes’ principle.
We lucked out when we arrived.  We parked, bought tickets, and were on the boat all within five minutes. 





















The boat was about as fast as some of the leisurely water rides at Disneyland. However, the commentary was hilarious, and the scenery was beautiful!





















We walked around for a bit, and also had lunch there too!  It was a fun way to spend the morning. It is really kid-friendly with loads of activities for the little ones. 





We were able to see the miniature Kelpies in the parking lot on the way out. We passed by the giant ones rising out of the ground just before we arrived at Falkirk Wheel, so it was nice that they explained what they were!  (Kelpies are from Scottish Celtic culture, who delighted in drowning travelers that would climb on their backs). Kind of crazy mythology, but it somehow works!



We then headed out towards the Wallace National Monument. The landscape is really varied in this part of Scotland. Sometimes it looks like you’re driving in the south (of the US), and sometimes it looks like Alaska. Other times still, it’s unique to Scotland. It’s very green, though we’ve been pretty fortunate to have seen mostly blue skies thus far!

At the Monument, I learned that William Wallace was born in 1270 a.d. and was killed in 1305 a.d.  He was not nobility, but believed in his countrymen, and their freedoms as Scots. He eventually rounded up the Scots to fight against the English in the Battle of Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297. The Scots were not supposed to win the battle, but miraculously did!  

The Monument is pretty interesting and has a few floors where you can learn all kinds of interesting information, including seeing a replica of Wallace’s five foot longsword. There are 246 stairs in the spiral staircase that takes you to the top of the monument. (The only trick is that you need to go back down the same set of stairs you climbed up, with the other tourists too). 



















The view from the top is pretty spectacular! 
















We slowly made our way down the hill (after taking the free shuttle up). It was a pleasant walk, though it was fairly steep. It also had some interesting things along the way!





We tried to drive to Blair Castle, but evidently missed the castle being open. So, we turned around and headed for our stop for the evening. We did find a cute church and cemetery on the way!  Dinner was a traditional roast. 















We have had amazing weather and fantastic cementing of friendships on a grand adventure. It was another delightful day!

Comments

  1. KerryJune 29, 2018 at 7:49 PM

    We went to the Wallace Memorial, but did not go up when we found out about the stairs. We were too tired!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 5, 2018 at 4:47 PM

    I don’t blame you at all. It was pretty tight quarters as both going up and down were on the same stairwell!

    ReplyDelete

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