Union Canal at Linlithgow

I've been visiting Scotland quite a bit in recent years, partly to further my aim of walking in every Scottish county, and September saw me in Linlithgowshire. Now known as West Lothian, its main town of Linlithgow is just 20 minutes from Edinburgh by train and the start of my walk was straight out of the station to the canal basin of the Union canal.

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal is at last re-united with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Falkirk by means of the excellent Falkirk Wheel.

The short section I walked was from Linlithgow to the Avon Aqueduct, the 810ft (247m) long bridge 85ft (26m) high over a valley and waterfall. A dramatic sight and well worth a visit, whether by boat, walking, cycle or kayak.

It was a lovely towpath walk which continues to Falkirk (9 miles) though I returned by way of the banks of The River Avon. Well done, Linlithgow Canal Society!
Worth noting, however, how much the renewal of this canal is due to EU funding.

It's hard to go far in the Highlands without encountering road schemes funded by the EU. Little wonder, then, that Scots are keen to stay in the EU. Selfish, perhaps, but surely England got it wrong ....

Caledonian Canal

I've been up to the far north recently, following parts of the route that is now known as the North Coast 500. Most of that trip was by motor home (well, converted VW van) but on the way back we followed the route of the Caledonian Canal, which treks from Inverness through the length of Loch Ness down to Corpach near Fort William. Sea-going yachts do it as a short cut from one coast to another and all types of cruisers take the route too. We are familiar with the Neptune Staircase at Banavie, which as we noted in a previous post is also a rail junction and a road crossing, but we hadn't visited Fort Augustus, at the south end of Loch Ness, for many years, so we dropped in on our journey to return the hired van to Jamie at Fort William Car Hire.
By chance who should we see but Timothy West and Prunella Scales, recording a future Great Canal Journeys programme. Look out for us as we hovered innocently alongside when the lock gates opened. They'd exchanged their narrow boat for a posh cruiser this time and it bobbed about like cruisers do ....