The Falkirk Wheel

The Falkirk Wheel is the world's only rotating boat lift, opened in 2002 as the centrepiece of the Millennium Link project to reconnect the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The two waterways had been severed for decades after a flight of 11 locks at Falkirk was dismantled in the 1930s, and the Wheel replaces them with a single elegant 35-metre lift that takes only a few minutes to operate.

The mechanism works on the Archimedes principle: two opposing gondolas, each holding a boat and around 250 tonnes of water, balance perfectly so that the entire structure can be turned using a remarkably small amount of energy, roughly the same as boiling eight kettles per cycle. Boats sail into the lower gondola from the Forth and Clyde Canal basin, are rotated through 180 degrees and emerge at aqueduct level, from where a short tunnel beneath the Antonine Wall leads onto the Union Canal.

The visitor centre offers boat trips that ride the Wheel and continue along the upper aqueduct, alongside exhibitions on the engineering, a café and outdoor activities including kayaking and pedal boats. The Helix Park and The Kelpies sculptures are a short distance away, and the two together make an excellent day out from Edinburgh, Glasgow or Stirling.