{Scotland} An Uplifting Day Out at the Falkirk Wheel

Travel

{Scotland} An Uplifting Day Out at the Falkirk Wheel

Falkirk had been on my radar for a while as a day trip, with both the Falkirk Wheel and the famous Kelpies as a choice of destination. Having looked at the travel options, the Falkirk Wheel seemed easier to get to by public transport, so that’s where we found ourselves heading at the end of the Easter holidays.

The world’s only rotating boat lift, the Falkirk Wheel links the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Union Canal 35 metres above, and towers over the Visitor Centre. The highlight is the 50 minute boat ride on the Wheel itself, which doesn’t come cheap, but as we hadn’t gone away on vacation over Easter, we decided to splash out.

If you are on a budget though, it’s also fun to just stand and watch the wheel going round – you can actually see better what’s happening than when you are on the boat – and you can go for a walk alone the canal following the same route the boat takes.

Besides the Wheel itself, there’s a small exhibit in the Visitor Centre with some infographics with background information and key facts – Did you know that the 600 tonne gondolas of the Wheel hold 500,000 litres of water? But that the Wheel is powered using the energy of just 8 kettles!

In the outside area around the Wheel, there is a free children’s playground and water play park (though the latter was sadly closed for maintenance on the day of our visit), as well as lots of photo opportunities.

(There are also other paid activities available, such as mini golf, archery, and various water sport options, so be prepared for children begging to have a go at something, or manage their expectations in advance).

All in all, we really enjoyed our day trip to the Falkirk Wheel. We stayed for over 3.5 hours, which included the boat ride, lunch (a picnic we’d brought + coffees from the cafe), walk along the canal, and time spent at the playground. We’d also picked a belter of a day, so the lovely Scottish sunshine added to the great experience.

How to get there

Location: Lime Rd, Falkirk FK1 4RS

Take the train from Waverley or Haymarket to Camelon, from there it’s around half an hour walk to the Falkirk Wheel, most of it along the Forth & Clyde Canal, which is a really lovely walk in itself. Total travel time is around 1 hour 10 minutes.

Alternatively you can take the train to Falkirk High, and take a bus from there to the Falkirk Wheel Visitor Centre. Since my youngest gets travel sick quite frequently on buses, we chose the Camelon option as he preferred the walk to the bus.