Impressive stone structure above the River Almond
The Bridge Inn, Ratho, Edinburgh EH28 8RA
The Almond Aqueduct is an aqueduct in West Lothian, Scotland, UK, west of Ratho. 130 m(420 ft) long. It carries the Union Canal 23 m (76 ft) above the River Almond.
The Union Canal, 51 km. long, was built between 1818 and 1822 to link Edinburgh with the Forth & Clyde Canal at Falkirk. It was originally called the Edinburgh & Glasgow Union Canal to celebrate the uniting of the two cities by the new canal network, but this name is rarely used today.
The canal was designed by Hugh Baird, who oversaw the engineering work while it was being built between 1818 and 1822. Two of its construction workers were the famous murderers Burke and Hare. The soliton, a form of wave, was first observed on the Union Canal in 1834, while its discoverer John Scott Russell was travelling along the canal in a horse-drawn boat. A modern aqueduct over the Edinburgh City Bypass is named after Russell.
Originally used for transporting coal, competition from the railways caused it to close to commercial use in the 1930s. The locks, connecting it to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Falkirk, were filled in and built over. The canal is now used recreationally.
The Millennium Link, a project to restore both the Union and Forth and Clyde Canals, saw the two canals joined once again at the Falkirk end of the Union Canal, in 2000, by means of the Falkirk Wheel.
Photo of the aqueduct: Eileen Henderson / Avon Aqueduct
By road: Off B7030, west of Edinburgh
By water: On the Union Canal
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