The Forth Canoe Club, founded in 1934, is Scotland's oldest surviving canoe club. It is a founding member of the Scottish Canoe Association. The club originally met at Granton in North Edinburgh on the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

. In 1982 it moved to

Lochrin Lochrin is a small area in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is in the south-west corner of the city centre, to the west of Tollcross, and south of Fountainbridge. Lochrin contains a wide mixture of retail shops, leisure facilities, other ...

Basin at the Edinburgh end of 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 ...

following an extensive

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

operation by the club's second commodore Kelso Riddell. When the Union Canal was developed by British Waterways as part of the

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 ...

, Forth Canoe Club were required to relocate and in 2004 moved to the Old St Andrew's Boathouse further along the canal adjacent to Harrison Park. The first commodore was Jack Cuthill and the main building of the club was named after him. When this building was destroyed, the new building at Grandtully was named in his memory. The club's motto, ' means "by wind and by skill". Forth Canoe Club member David Florence represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics as a member of the senior team. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in Beijing he won a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the men's C1 single slalom event on 12 August 2008.

References

External links

*
Beijing Olympics website, entry on David Florence

Website on David Florence

"Canoe club is on course for great things", Edinburgh Evening News, 15 May 2008
{{Canoeing and kayaking Canoe clubs in the United Kingdom Sports organisations of Scotland Sports organizations established in 1934 1934 establishments in Scotland Canoeing in Scotland Sports clubs and teams in Edinburgh