Day 10: The tension mounts: yes or no?

Tomorrow is the day that Scotland goes to the polls to decide its future. Will it become an independent nation? The polls are close – very close – although at the moment the “no” campaign is very slightly ahead. We are looking forward to being here as the voting happens. Our own – admittedly not statistically based – poll would say that the “yes” campaign will win. But our sample size is small!!

The Scotsman from today

The place we are staying in is up three flights of stairs totalling 60 stairs. It's a spiral and impressive staircase and I am not sure that the pictures below do it justice.

Our staircases. Left: from the top looking down the stairwell.
Right: from the bottom looking up to the cupola at the top

Readers will recall that I have a problem with my left big toe and I am afraid to say that a night’s rest did not see an improvement. The G was up at 0615 so that we could get to the station to catch a train to Falkirk for our canal boat trip. This had been recommended by a friend of mine who had done the same trip two years ago. I told The G about this in April and she was on to the organisers toute de suite. They had one day available and that was today. I hobbled rather than walked the mile or so to Waverley Station. But I made it!! We bought tickets and climbed aboard the 0815 to Falkirk High. I am not sure why it is called “high” – perhaps because it is on top of a hill. There’s another station at Falkirk but I do not know what it is called.

The Waterloo Arch which is close to Waverley Station. It is lit in purple on one side and green on the other. I imagine this makes some kind of statement but I am blowed if I know what it is. Looks good, though

It was our friend Dr Johnson (we have mentioned him before) who said that “he was not come to Scotland to see fine places of which there were enough in England, but wild objects – mountains, waterfalls, peculiar manners: in short, things which he had not seen before.” I had this in mind when I boarded the Glasgow train for Falkirk.

I had expected to be rewarded with beautiful views of the Scottish countryside but I wasn’t. They were just views. After some overnight rain it was a greyish though dry day. The first stop was Haymarket which is effectively West Edinburgh. I must have been to Haymarket but I have no recollection. So far as I can tell its biggest claim to fame is that it has a railway station. We stopped there for two minutes before pulling out.

Haymarket, Edinburgh. People live here. They really do

As we pulled out of Haymarket we passed Murrayfield the home of Scottish rugby football. It’s a massive and impressive stadium whose capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,144 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screens" in the country, though it remains the largest stadium in Scotland and the 4th largest in the United Kingdom.

Murrayfield - the home of Scottish rugby

The next stop was Polmont – another place unknown to me. Polmont’s name derives from the Scottish Gaelic for Pool of the Moor. It’s not particularly old but as we pulled out of the station we noticed a sign commemorating the Polmont Rail Disiaster. In 1984 a train collided with a cow that had strayed onto the rail line near Polmont. The crash left 13 people dead and 61 others injured. I don’t know what happened to the cow.

The plaque on the station that caught our eyes

Linlithgow is far more famous – everyone has heard of it, surely. The chief historic attraction of Linlithgow is the remains of Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of James V and Mary, Queen of Scots, and probably Scotland's finest surviving late medieval secular building. The present Palace was started (on an older site) in 1424 by James I of Scotland. It was burnt in 1746, and, whilst unroofed, it is still largely complete in terms of its apartments (though very few of the original furnishings survived).

The town of Linlithgow from the roof of Linlithgow Palace. I did not take this picture but I wish I had

Linlithgow was also the site of the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge at the western edge of the town. The bridge no longer stands. My research tells me that the roadway to Linlithgow over the River Avon is described by scholars as a lifted road. Whatever a lifted road is I do not know. I leave that one to you!!

James V over whom the Battle of Linlithgow was fought.  He was the father of Mary Queen of Scots

Finally I learned that as a Royal Burgh, residents of Linlithgow are entitled to eat swans found in the loch or nearby. This is usually a royal prerogative, so the burghers rarely exercise this right.

A swan on the Union Canal

In line with the new quality service offered by the UK (which still includes Scotland) rail service we arrived at Falkirk High in time. The name Falkirk has an interesting history. Its Scottish Gaelic name is An Eaglais Bhreac which means “speckled church”. The Scottish Gaelic name was translated in to Scots as Fawkirk (or variegated church) and the rest as they say it history. It’s quite large – the population is about 40,000 with a catchment of about 160,000. Two important battles have taken place at Falkirk. The Battle of Falkirk fought on 22 July 1298, saw the defeat of William Wallace by King Edward I of England. The Battle of Falkirk Muir took place on 17 January 1746, the Jacobites under Charles Edward Stuart defeated a government army commanded by Lieutenant General Henry Hawley. The Antonine Wall, built by the Romans, also passed through the town.

Edward I - this may not be a great likeness

I had paid little attention to The G and her saying that we were going to the Falkirk Wheel to start our canal boat journey. I had thought this was a bit like the London Eye or any other giant Ferris wheel. But no. The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boatlift in Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It opened in 2002, reconnecting the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. There are two caissons or gondolas on either side of the axle of the wheel. The weight of water plus boats in each is balanced (about 500 tonnes each) and the whole thing is driven by hydraulic motors. It’s very impressive and is the only one of its kind in the world. An early design mock-up was apparently constructed using lego!!

A panoramic view of the Falkirk Wheel

The Wheel in action

Our canal boat was operated (and owned) by a couple called Irene and Nick Scott who, it turned out, had been married 40 years ago in Australia. And very pleasant they turned out to be.  

Our narrow boat - the Willow at 65 feet long and not very wide

We got a taxi from the station and our hosts were ready and waiting. We started with a safety briefing: this consisted entirely of instructions about how to use the toilet. Clearly they have had problems in the past and wanted to avoid any more. Toilet paper was to be used in servings of three sheets maximum at a time.

We left at 1000 and arrived back at 1730 and I may say we had a great time. What did we do? Absolutely nothing. We sat and watched the canal go by and got fed by Irene for our troubles.

A lock gate - we went through this lock almost immediately after going up the Wheel. There used to be a sequence of eleven locks to do the total rise and fall

The Union Canal runs from Falkirk to Edinburgh. It was constructed to bring minerals, especially coal, to the capital. It was opened in 1822 and was initially successful, but the construction of railways, particularly the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, opened in 1842, diminished its value as a transport medium. It fell into slow commercial decline and became disused in the 1930s.

If you look very carefully you can see a roe deer

Approaching the 680 metre long canal tunnel

Inside the tunnel - it's pretty spectacular

You can make out "ribbing stones" at the side of the towpath. These were put there to prevent the horses from going too near the bank and destroying it

A bridge

A view

Graffiti

Almond Castle is a ruined 15th century castle. It changed hands several times in its life until eventually it was abandoned in the 1750s. In 1753 it was sold to someone called William Forbes – whoever he was!! 

Approaching the River Almond aqueduct - built by Telford it is the second highest in the UK

The G on the aqueduct

A viaduct in the distance from the aqueduct

We climbed down under the aqueduct where it was particularly pretty 

The River Almond under the aqueduct

Under the aqueduct 

The canal is not always neat and tidy

The G sitting in the narrow boat

The view through the final tunnel to the Wheel

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We staggered off the boat and took a taxi back to Falkirk High and then the train back to Edinburgh, An uneventful trip. The Imperial Toe continues to trouble me but we called in at Cornelius' bottle shop and the owner recommended a bottle of South African red (Shiraz Mouvedre Viogner) which we enjoyed hugely with scrambled eggs.


And so, with the referendum tomorrow, to be.