Attraction in Stirlingshire

The Falkirk Wheel in central Scotland is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, built as the centrepiece of the Millennium Link project to restore Scotland's central belt canal network and opened in 2002. It is one of the most remarkable pieces of engineering in Britain, replacing eleven derelict locks with a single rotating structure of extraordinary ingenuity that has become one of the most visited engineering attractions in Scotland. The engineering principle is elegant: because a floating boat always displaces exactly its own weight of water, the two gondolas in which boats travel are perpetually in counterbalance regardless of how many boats they contain. The energy required to rotate the entire structure is therefore only that needed to overcome friction, making it one of the most energy-efficient boat lifts in the world and a practical demonstration of Archimedes's principle at engineering scale. Boat trips through the wheel from the lower canal basin allow visitors to experience the rotation from inside the gondola, a remarkable and memorable perspective on the engineering. The proximity of the Kelpies sculpture park on the same canal network makes a combined visit an excellent day out in the Falkirk area.

The Kelpies are two enormous steel horse heads rising thirty metres from the Forth and Clyde Canal at the Helix Park near Falkirk, the largest equine sculptures in the world and one of the most spectacular pieces of public art in Scotland. Created by sculptor Andy Scott and completed in 2013, the sculptures were conceived as a monument to the horse-powered heritage of Scotland's heavy industries and the role of working horses in the canals, industries and farms that built modern Scotland. The scale is their most immediately impressive quality. Each Kelpie weighs approximately 300 tonnes, their stainless steel surface panels reflecting the sky and surrounding landscape in constantly changing patterns of light. The choice of the kelpie, the shape-shifting water horse of Scottish folklore, as the mythological framework for sculptures celebrating working horses creates an interesting tension between the dark folkloric tradition and the celebratory industrial heritage narrative. The sculptures mark the eastern entrance to the Helix Park, a large public park providing cycling, walking, water sports and recreation for the communities of the Falkirk area. The canal basin beside the Kelpies provides a visitor centre and access to the canal network, and the combination of the sculptures and the adjacent Falkirk Wheel creates one of the most impressive engineering and public art experiences in Scotland.