The Edinburgh Union Canal Society is a

charitable Charity is the voluntary provision of assistance to those in need. It serves as a humanitarian act, and is unmotivated by self-interest. Various philosophies about charity exist, with frequent associations with religion. Etymology The word ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

society on the Union Canal in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The Society's main base is Ashley Terrace

Boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

at Lockhart Bridge, near Harrison Park in the Polwarth area of Edinburgh. The society was founded in 1985 and is a founder member of the

Scottish Inland Waterways Association The Scottish Inland Waterways Association (SIWA) was a Charitable organization#Registration, registered charity and voluntary association, association of canal societies and individual canal enthusiasts in Scotland. The Association was founded ...

. In partnership with the Forth Canoe Club, the Linlithgow Union Canal Society, the Bridge 19-40 Canal Society, the Seagull Trust and other canal societies on the Scottish Lowland Canals, Edinburgh Canal Society campaigned for many years to have the Union Canal rebuilt, refurbished and re-opened. The culmination of the campaign was the joining of the Union Canal and the

Forth & Clyde Canal The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. This allow ...

by way of the Falkirk Wheel. Edinburgh Canal Society was one of the official Millennium Link Project Partners.

Boats and boathouse

The society owns a wooden historical launch with

Kelvin The kelvin (symbol: K) is the base unit for temperature in the International System of Units (SI). The Kelvin scale is an absolute temperature scale that starts at the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero), taken to be 0 K. By de ...

engines; the vessel had sunk in the early 1990s in

Fisherrow Fisherrow is a harbour and former fishing village at Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland, to the east of Portobello and Joppa, and west of the River Esk. History There has been fishing at Fisherrow and Musselburgh since Roman times, and the p ...

harbour at

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; ; ) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It had a population of as of . History The name Musselburgh is Old English language, Old English in ...

after a violent storm. A society member happened to be passing just as the disposal lorry arrived, and the vessel was rescued. In 1999, she was removed to Mackay's

boatyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved ...

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

, with help from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The same boatyard had earlier restored Robert Scott's RRS ''Discovery'' in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. Obtaining the correct

engine at first seemed impossible, but by another chance encounter, a Kelvin E2 engine was obtained from a warehouse in

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

A replica launch was built to meet the demand for more boat trips in both directions of the Union Canal, but this has been disposed of. The society also owns a fleet of wooden

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

boats for hire or charter. The society's

boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

is one of a large range of iconic buildings and structures on the Scottish Lowland Canals. It was sited originally where the University Rowing Club's boathouse is at present. In 1987 the boathouse was dismantled and rebuilt in modified form at its present site, and it is constantly being refurbished, to the delight of amateur and professional photographers. In 2008, the Boathouse and one of the rowing boats were a filming location for a creative documentary, commissioned in Ireland and named ''An Paísti Beo Bocht'', about the life of

Patrick MacGill Patrick MacGill (24 December 1889 – 22 November 1963) was an Ireland, Irish journalist, poet and novelist, known as "The Navvy Poet" because he had worked as a navvy before he began writing. Personal life MacGill was born in Glenties, Count ...

, the Irish

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, nicknamed "The Navvy Poet" due to his earlier occupation as

navvy Navvy, a Clipping (morphology), clipping of navigator (United Kingdom, UK) or navigational engineer (United States, US), is particularly applied to describe the manual Laborer, labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasional ...

on the canals. In 2009, members of the Society and others were involved in the setting up of the first Edinburgh Canal Festival between Edinburgh Quay and the Society's boathouse at Harrison Park. This event is now an annual one and will take place again in 2012. In July 2015 the Society had to cease hiring out rowing boats when its boathouse was declared unsafe, pending major repairs.

Journeys and rallies

* 17 May 2001 Kelvin's first trip beneath

Forth Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in ...

from

Port Edgar Port Edgar is a marina on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, immediately west of the Forth Road Bridge and the town of South Queensferry, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally a naval base, HMS ''Lochinvar'', Port Edgar is now a busy marina ...

* 24 May 2001 Port Edgar to

Carron Carron may refer to: Rivers * River Carron, Forth, a river in Central Scotland * River Carron, Wester Ross * River Carron, Sutherland * Carron River (Queensland), a river in Australia * Carron Water, Aberdeenshire, a river that flows into the Nort ...

Sea Lock, Opening of

* 25 May 2001

Sea Lock to Lock 15 * 26 May 2001

Camelon Camelon (; , ) is a large settlement within the Falkirk council area, Scotland. The village is in the Forth Valley, west of Falkirk, south of Larbert and east of Bonnybridge. The main road through Camelon is the A803 road which links th ...

Auchinstarry Auchinstarry is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK, near to Kilsyth. It is the site of a Roman fort. Auchinstarry Basin is on the Forth and Clyde Canal, and a £1.2M regeneration project has created a mooring basin for boats with 56 p ...

Basin * 27 May 2001 Auchinstarry to Temple (Lock 27) * 28 May 2001 Temple to

Bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

Basin * 25 August 2001

Wester Hailes Wester Hailes is an area in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Wester Hailes borders on Kingsknowe and Longstone to the east. Bankhead Industrial Estate and Sighthill Park lie to the north. History Although named after a large private ...

to Leamington Bridge; Formal Opening of Wester Hailes section of Union Canal * 20 May 2002 Harrison Park to Falkirk Wheel for Official Opening by HM The Queen on 20 May 2002. * 2 October 2002 Wester Hailes Gala Day * 28 March Formal opening of Speir's Wharf * 1 and 2 April 2003

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

to Falkirk Wheel to

Linlithgow Linlithgow ( ; ; ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a historic route between Edi ...

* 17 to 23 April 2003 Leamington Bridge via Falkirk Wheel, Glasgow (Speir's Wharf), Bowling Basin,

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

, Carron Sea Lock, to Port Edgar via

Inverkeithing Inverkeithing ( ; ) is a coastal town, parish and historic Royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town lies on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, northwest of Edinburgh city centre and south of Dunfermline. A town of ancient origin, Inverke ...

. * 23 May and 13 August 2003

Harrison Park Harrison Park may refer to: * Harrison Park (Leek), a stadium in Leek, Staffordshire * Harrison Park (New Jersey), a former baseball ground in Harrison, New Jersey * Municipality of Harrison Park, a rural municipality in Manitoba * Harrison Park, ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

Top Lock * 25 Sept. 2003

World Canals Conference The World Canals Conference (WCC) is an annual conference about canals and other waterways worldwide. The first conference took place in 1988, and the 2019 conference was the thirty-second. People with an interest in canals gather together to learn ...

, Wester Hailes * 23 March 2004 Falkirk Wheel Lower Basin to Carron Sea Lock * 4–6 April 2004 Kincardine Pier to Craigforth

Weir A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

to Carron Sea Lock * 16 April 2004

Ratho Ratho () is a village in the rural west part of the City of Edinburgh council area, Scotland. Its population at the 2011 census was 1,634 based on the 2010 definition of the locality. It was formerly in the old county of Midlothian (historic), ...

* 1 May 2004 Kelvin TWO launched at MacLean's Yard,

Renfrew Renfrew (; ; ) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Scotland's former royal house, Renfrew gaine ...

* 18 to 30 May 2004

Lancaster Canal The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria (Historic counties of England, historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River ...

via Preston,

Bilsborrow Bilsborrow is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Myerscough and Bilsborrow, in the Wyre district, in the county of Lancashire, England. The village population at the 2011 census was 632. It is on the A6 road and the Lanca ...

Garstang Garstang is an ancient market town and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is north of the city of Preston and the same distance south of Lancaster. In 2011, the parish had a total resident population of 4,26 ...

Galgate Galgate is a village in the City of Lancaster, just south of Lancaster University, and about south of Lancaster itself in the English county of Lancashire. Etymology The name ''Galgate'' is from ''Galwaithegate'', a road that continues north ...

, Hest Bank,

Glasson Dock Glasson Dock, also known as Glasson, is a village in Lancashire, England, south of Lancaster at the mouth of the River Lune. In 2011, it had a population of around 600. History Glasson was originally a small farming and fishing community (whic ...

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

Bolton-le-Sands Bolton-le-Sands is a large village and civil parish of the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. The parish had a population of 4,098 recorded in the 2001 census, increasing to 4,127 at the 2011 Census. History Referred to as ''Bodeltone ...

Carnforth Carnforth is a market town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, situated at the north-east end of Morecambe Bay. The parish of Carnforth had a population of 5,560 in the 2011 census, an increase from the 5,350 reco ...

and

Tewitfield Tewitfield is a hamlet in Lancashire, England, near Borwick and Carnforth, and in the parish of Priest Hutton. The word "tewit" is a name for the bird better known as the lapwing. Canal and locks Tewitfield Locks is the current terminus ...

. * 28–30 May 2004

Rally,

Shardlow Shardlow is a village in Derbyshire, England about southeast of Derby and southwest of Nottingham. Part of the civil parish of Shardlow and Great Wilne, and the district of South Derbyshire, it is also very close to the border with Leicester ...

Trent & Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middl ...

* 15 June 2004 Ratho * 9 Aug 2004 Kelvin 1 and Kelvin 2 at

Winchburgh Winchburgh is a village in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of West Lothian, Scotland. It is located approximately west of the city centre of Edinburgh, east of Linlithgow and northeast of Broxburn, West Lothian, Broxburn. Demograp ...

* 22 March 2005 Edinburgh Quay Official Opening * 22 May 2006 Falkirk Top Lock to Harrison Park * Start of regular Sunday Shuttles from ECS

to Edinburgh Quay and return

References

"Adrift in Caledonia", by Nick Thorpe; publ. Little, Brown,

External links

Kelvin Diesel Engines

Boats and boathouse

Journeys and rallies

References

External links

See also