The Edinburgh Union Canal Society is a

charitable The practice of charity is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. There are a number of philosophies about charity, often associated with religion. Etymology The word ''charity'' ori ...

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 flow un ...

society on the

Union Canal Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. 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 registered charity and association of canal societies and individual canal enthusiasts in Scotland. The Association was founded in 1970 by canal enthusiasts who, after the closure of the U ...

. In partnership with the Forth Canoe Club, the

Linlithgow Union Canal Society The Linlithgow Union Canal Society is a waterway society and a Scottish registered charity based at Linlithgow Canal Centre on the Union Canal at Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland. Also known as "LUCS", it was founded in 1975 by Melville Gray to ...

, the

Bridge 19-40 Canal Society The Bridge 19-40 Canal Society is a Scottish waterway society and registered charity operating community boats on the Union Canal, with bases at Winchburgh and Drumshoreland, West Lothian. History The former B.U.C.H.A.N. Society, a canal socie ...

, the

Seagull Trust Seagull Trust Cruises (formerly Seagull Trust) is a waterway society and Scottish charity. The Trust was formed in 1978 and offers free canal cruising for disabled and disadvantaged persons and groups. The Seagull Trust was awarded the Queen's ...

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 allowe ...

by way of the

Falkirk Wheel The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Tamfourhill, Falkirk, in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part o ...

. Edinburgh Canal Society was one of the official

Millennium Link The Millennium Link is one of the biggest engineering projects ever undertaken by British Waterways. The Union Canal (Scotland), Union Canal and the Forth & Clyde Canal were originally joined by a flight of Lock (water transport), locks. The Mill ...

Project Partners.

Boats and boathouse

The society owns a wooden historical launch with

Kelvin The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and phys ...

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 pr ...

harbour at

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; sco, Musselburrae; gd, Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It has a population of . History The name Musselburgh is Ol ...

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. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. The ...

, 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 (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

. 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 (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

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 atta ...

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 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, County Donega ...

, the Irish

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

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

navvy Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and eart ...

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 (; sco, Caimlan, gd, Camlann)
is a large set ...

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 target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

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 ho ...

to Leamington Bridge; Formal Opening of Wester Hailes section of Union Canal * 20 May 2002 Harrison Park to

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 ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

to Falkirk Wheel to

Linlithgow Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) 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 ...

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

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

, Carron Sea Lock, to Port Edgar via

Inverkeithing Inverkeithing ( ; gd, Inbhir Chèitinn) is a port town and parish, in Fife, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth. A town of ancient origin, Inverkeithing was given royal burgh status during the reign of Malcolm IV in the 12th century. It was an impo ...

. * 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, a ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large 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 ...

Top Lock * 25 Sept. 2003

World Canals Conference The World Canals Conference (WCC) is an annual conference about canals and other waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending ...

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

Kincardine Kincardine may refer to: Places Scotland *Kincardine, Fife, a town on the River Forth, Scotland **Kincardine Bridge, a bridge which spans the Firth of Forth *Kincardineshire, a historic county **Kincardine, Aberdeenshire, now abandoned **Kincardi ...

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 river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

to Carron Sea Lock * 16 April 2004

Ratho Ratho ( gd, Ràthach) is a village in the Rural West Edinburgh area of Edinburgh, 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. Ratho Statio ...

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

Renfrew Renfrew (; sco, Renfrew; gd, Rinn Friù) 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 ...

* 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 (historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never completed, a ...

via Preston,

Bilsborrow Bilsborrow is a village on the A6 road and the Lancaster Canal, in the Wyre District, in the English county of Lancashire. The village population at the 2011 census was 632. It is approximately east of Myerscough. Bilsborrow was a civil par ...

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 4,268 ...

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 nort ...

Hest Bank Hest may refer to: * Ari Hest (born 1979), American singer-songwriter * Greg van Hest (born 1973), Dutch runner * ''Hest'', an album by the Norwegian band Kakkmaddafakka See also * Hest Bank Hest may refer to: * Ari Hest (born 1979), American ...

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,

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. Referred to as ''Bodeltone'' in the ...

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. History & details Tewitfield Locks is the current terminus of the navigable Lancaster Canal. In 2008, the Lancaster Canal Trust, t ...

. * 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 Leicestersh ...

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 Middle ...

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

Winchburgh Winchburgh is a village in the council area of West Lothian, Scotland. It is located approximately west of the city-centre of Edinburgh, east of Linlithgow and northeast of Broxburn. Prehistory and archaeology Archaeological excavations in ...

* 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