Archaeology Notes

Event ID 708425

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/708425

NS97NE 62.03 96136 76141

Location formerly entered as NS 9613 7613.

For former bridge (adjacent to SE) carrying the Slamannan Railway over the canal, see NS97NE 176.

The terminal dock of the Slamannan Railway (LIN 22) is presumably not an original part of the Union Canal, as the railway line was not opened until 1840.

It lies on the SW bank of the canal 170 yds NW of the road from Linlithgow to Slamannan and consists of a basin 150ft square which communicates with the canal through an opening 15ft wide at its narrowest point. The SW side of the basin is formed by a quay of massive stonework, its coping bearing some remains of loading machinery. The grooves in its edge are understood to have been made by pigs of iron being slid down into barges. The NE side and the entrance are also faced with, if not wholly built of, masonry, part of the coping here being made of blocks to which the railway-lines had once been bolted. As far as could be seen under a heavy covering of herbage, the NW and SE sides are of earth.

RCAHMS 1963 (visited 1954).

(Location cited as NS 961 761). Slamannan Railway Terminal Basin, Stirlingshire. This basin, on the SW bank of the Union Canal, was the original terminus of the Slamannan Railway, which was opened in 1840. RCAHMS notes that it 'consists of a basin 150 ft. [45.7m] square, which communicates with the Canal through an opening 15ft [4.6m] wide at its narrowest point. The SW side of the basin is formed by a quay of massive stonework, the coping bearing some remains of loading machinery. The grooves in its edge are understood to have been made by pigs of iron being slid down into barges. The NE side and the entrance are also faced with, if not wholly built of, masonry, part of the coping here being made of blocks to which railway-lines had once been bolted. As far as could be seen under a heavy covering of herbage, the NW and SE sides are of earth.'

RCAHMS 1963 (visited 1954); A Graham 1971.

This basin was the terminus of a railway line from Slammannan, near Airdrie, which was built in 1840.

G Hutton 1993.

This large square basin was the location of transference of coal fom railway transportation to canal barges. As the lines were built jutting out over the basin, coal could be tipped straight into the holds once the doors were opened.

H Brown 1997.

The basin and adjoining railway lines are clearly marked on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Stirlingshire 1865, sheet XXXI) and on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map (Stirlingshire 1899, sheet XXXISW). The basin is visible on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1989) and on the OS Basic Scale digital map (2000), but the railway line has been dismantled.

Information from RCAHMS (MD), 17 April 2001.

These structures are depicted, but not noted, on the 1987 edition of the OS 1:10,000 map.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 21 February 2006.