Qualla: Union Canal (Scotland) https://qualla.com/union-canal-scotland en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:23 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Union Canal (Scotland) https://qualla.com/union-canal-scotland Union Canal (Scotland): Introduction https://qualla.com/union-canal-scotland/ The Falkirk Wheel does not look like a piece of canal infrastructure. It looks like a sculpture - a rotating steel arm 35 metres tall that hoists boats from one waterway to another in a single graceful turn. When it opened in 2002 it became the only such structure in the world, and it solved a problem two centuries old. The Union Canal had been built in 1822 to carry coal from Lanarkshire to Edinburgh. The Forth and Clyde Canal had been built earlier to connect Scotland's east and west coasts. The two had once been linked by eleven locks at Falkirk. Those locks were filled in by 1933. The Wheel is what put the system back together.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/y/union-canal-scotland-wp/gcvy-union-canal-scotland-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Union Canal (Scotland): A Canal for Coal https://qualla.com/union-canal-scotland/ The Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal Company obtained its first Act of Parliament in 1817 and started building. The point of the canal was simple - move minerals from the mines and quarries of Lanarkshire to the hearths and forges of Edinburgh. The initial cost estimate was wild...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/y/union-canal-scotland-wp/gcvy-union-canal-scotland-a-canal-for-coal.mp3 0:06 2 full Union Canal (Scotland): Beaten by Steam https://qualla.com/union-canal-scotland/ The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway opened in 1842, twenty years after the canal. The railway ran the same route faster and cheaper. The Union Canal's commercial decline was steady and unstoppable. Commercial traffic ended in 1933. The canal was officially closed in 1965. Through t...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/y/union-canal-scotland-wp/gcvy-union-canal-scotland-beaten-by-steam.mp3 0:06 3 full Union Canal (Scotland): The Falkirk Wheel https://qualla.com/union-canal-scotland/ The Wheel opened in 2002. It is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, lifting boats 24 metres between the Union Canal at the top and the Forth and Clyde Canal at the bottom. Each rotation uses the same amount of energy as boiling eight kettles - because the two op...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/y/union-canal-scotland-wp/gcvy-union-canal-scotland-the-falkirk-wheel.mp3 0:06 4 full Union Canal (Scotland): The 2020 Breach https://qualla.com/union-canal-scotland/ Early on Wednesday 12 August 2020, slow-moving thunderstorms parked over eastern Scotland and emptied themselves on the Falkirk area. The Union Canal overtopped its embankment east of Polmont. A 30-metre breach opened. The water that escaped flooded down onto the main railway lin...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/y/union-canal-scotland-wp/gcvy-union-canal-scotland-the-2020-breach.mp3 0:06 5 full