Falkirk; Friday, 10 July, 2026

I’d been up in Edinburgh for meetings on Thursday and in the evening had travelled over to Falkirk, working out of my hotel room for the day, so at 5pm as I closed my laptop, I was immediately ready to start exploring.

I headed out of the hotel with the idea of going for a walk along the Forth and Clyde canal, which was right next door to the building, towards lock 1 on the opposite side of town and one of the two signature sights of Falkirk, the Kelpies – statues of two mythical sea beasts, actually modelled on a couple of shire horses which had worked the canals.

The Forth and Clyde canal had originally opened in the 18th century, but by the middle of the 20th century had fallen into disrepair and was eventually closed. However, plans were made, with the coming of the new millennium, to revitalise the canal and reopen it for it’s full length, along with the neighbouring Union Canal and at the centre of those plans to link the two revived canals would be the Falkirk Wheel, the other signature sight of the town.

Everything went pretty much to plan and both canals and the wheel were opened at the start of the 2000s. However, when they rebuilt the multiple locks along the canal they used oak for the gates, which gave them an estimated life expectancy of around 25 years, and now, 25 years later, the canal was once again dewatered and fenced off as the laborious process of replacing all the lock gates was being undertaken, which meant that rather than being able to walk alongside the canal I had to follow several lengthy diversions before finally making my way down to Helix park on the divide between the towns of Falkirk and Grangemouth home to the Kelpies.

The park itself had lots of areas to explore, though after the extended walk down there I mostly focused on the area around the Kelpies statues and the end of the canal at the point where it meets the River Carron, shortly before that empties into the Firth of Forth.

Having spent some time exploring the park I decided I didn’t really want to face the three mile walk all the way back to the hotel, so I cheated and caught the bus about two miles of the way back into the town centre and had a brief wander around Falkirk before grabbing a bit to eat and then, having experienced the eye-watering prices of the local buses in Falkirk, walked the mile or so back to my hotel to turn in for the night.