Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 610013
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/610013
This was the only canal tunnel in Scotland before completion of the new tunnel at the Falkirk Wheel in 2001. The
necessity for the tunnel, which is just south of Falkirk and 696 yards long, arose from the refusal of landowner
William Forbes to allow the canal to cross his estate in view of Callendar House. A further objection by him also
resulted in a deep cutting north of the tunnel. The tunnel, completed in 1822, is about 1312 ft wide and driven mainly through solid rock. It is unlined but patched with masonry and brickwork in places. At each end there is a masonry fac¸ade with semicircular archring. The work was designed and constructed under the direction of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Union Canal Company’s engineer Hugh Baird and the contractor was John Mitchell. The towpath has been renovated and provided with a handrail for pedestrian safety. Miller had a similar problem at the Falkirk ridge when engineering the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway from 1838–41 which he resolved by making a tunnel 846 yards in length just to the north-east of the canal tunnel.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
