View from SSE showing W arch of aqueduct with part of viaduct in background

Description View from SSE showing W arch of aqueduct with part of viaduct in background

Date 5/1965

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number ED 1040

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 797433

Scope and Content Slateford Aqueduct, Union Canal, Edinburgh, from south-south-east This shows two arches on the western end of the eight-arched aqueduct, built between 1818 and 1822, which was designed by Baird with advice from Thomas Telford. Each of the segmental arches are surmounted by a projecting string-course and the railed parapet is supported by tapering piers. The structure in the background is Slateford Viaduct. Many aqueducts that were built around this time usually had water channels which were lined with heavy puddled (kneaded) clay. With Slateford Aqueduct, the water is carried on an iron trough over the span which means that the arches and pillars could be slender because the structure does not have to counter the water's outward pressure. This new style of aqueduct was originally designed by Telford for the Ellesmere Canal. The government authorised the construction of the Union Canal in 1817 and appointed Hugh Baird (1770-1827) as the chief engineer. The main purpose of the canal was to provide an economical route for the transportation of coal and lime between Edinburgh and Glasgow via the Forth & Clyde Canal (1768-90). The 51km-long canal was opened in 1822 at a cost of £461,760, almost double the estimate, and it ran from Lock 16 at Camelon, Falkirk to Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. Except where the two canals are joined at Falkirk, the canal was built with no locks because it followed the contours of the hills. The Union Canal was closed in 1965, two years after the Forth & Clyde Canal, and the construction of new roads meant that it was impossible for boats to travel along the full length of these watercourses. However, the £84.5m Millennium Link project enabled both canals to reopen in 2002. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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