Falkirk Wheel

A modern engineering masterpiece, the Falkirk Wheel has turned out to be an unexpected tourist hit, with huge turnouts for the boat ride that takes you up on the wheel, through the Roughcastle tunnel to the basin at the end of the Union Canal and back down again — it’s the exact antithesis of a thrill ride, but is strangely satisfying nonetheless, and the views over the Forth valley from the top are great. Advance booking for the boat trip is advisable as it gets pretty busy.
It’s popularity caught everyone by surprise, but now the visitor centre is up to speed it’s a great place to spend a few hours if it’s sunny — there’s plenty to keep little ones amused (at least there looks like there is — I’m not talking from personal experience here you understand), and other than the boat ride there are some lovely walks up the hill to Roughcastle Roman fort, the best-​preserved fort on the Antonine Wall, and I even saw a couple of folk on off-​road Segways today, although I’m not sure where you rent those from.
The visitor centre has some nice shop items ranging from craft jewellery to the obligatory Scottish scarves and tweed, through cuddly toy Highland cows, and a select assortment of Scotch whisky and Scottish gins. The café is not bad, although often very busy, and their home-​made soup does them proud.
If you’re coming from the Glasgow side, the signs will decant you into the car parks on the wrong side of the canal, which is fine if you don’t mind the short walk; as we had disabled father-​in-​law with us today we took the longer route into Falkirk and back out on the north side of the canal, which gives access to the disabled parking right outside the visitor centre.
The wheel itself is such a beautiful thing to look at, especially the graceful manner in which it operates. Who says Scottish engineering skills aren’t what they used to be? According to our tour guide on the boat, the engineer actually built an initial test model using his daughter’s Lego! However he did it, the end result is a wonder of the modern world, and with the Wheel and the Kelpies, Falkirk has demonstrated how investing in these sort of projects can really generate income for the area. Our guide, who was a local man, said that before he got this job he would never have believed that you could use the words ‘Falkirk’ and ‘tourist attraction’ in the same sentence. Well, now you can.

Falkirk Wheel ist ein modernes Weltwunder. Ein Schiffshebewerk das wie ein Riesenrad funktioniert. Eine Gondel fährt rauf, eine runter. Sehr futuristisch anzuschauen. Die Konstruktion ist einmalig auf der Welt.
Wer mitfahren möchte kauft im Besucherzentrum ein Ticket und besteigt ein Boot. Sobald eine Gondel unten ist fährt das Schiff ein und es geht aufwärts. Eine irrere Riesenradfahrt gibt es wohl nicht.
Es gibt im Besucherzentrum Andenken zu kaufen und für Verpflegung ist auch gesorgt.