While in Falkirk we went to visit their major attraction: The Falkirk Wheel. What the wheel is, essentially, is a modern day canal lock. It is challenging to describe how it works- there's a sort of boat shaped part filled with water that the boat sits in. This part has wheels on the bottom and sits inside of a circle that is in turn set into a larger mechanism. When the boat wants to go up the boat goes into the boat shaped part and then the larger mechanism flips over while the boat part remains upright because it's on wheels inside of a circle. Got that? Good. (If you look at the picture it will be easier to see what I'm talking about.)
In any case, it was pretty cool to watch happen, and it really is an ingenious mechanism. I overheard a tour guide saying that it replaced 11 locks. So instead of taking almost a full day to get through that part of the canal it takes about 15 minutes.
The funny thing is that they've turned it into an amusement park. There are food vendors and you can take a boat tour that goes up the lock and there is a children's playground and a gift shop and lots of walking trails. I would definitely recommend it if you're in the area.
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