Edinburgh Canal Society

Twenty years ago a group of canal and boat enthusiasts came together and formed the Edinburgh Canal Society. The Union and the Forth and Clyde canals were by then closed and pretty derelict ,as places like Wester Hailes and the M8 motorway had cut the canals into short sections thus making navigation impossible.

Other groups in Ratho, Linlithgow and Kirkintilloch also formed societies each with the same aim of preserving what was left and with the, what seemed at the time, the impossible dream of one day having the navigation reopened from Edinburgh to Falkirk and from the Forth to the Clyde.

At that time the Edinburgh section was from the Leamington lift bridge to Kingsknowe Train station.

With the help of British Waterways Scotland  and the local rowing clubs this section was saved from becoming completely derelict and the Society was able to build its now famous landmark boathouse and hire out a number of restored rowing boats so that people were able to appreciate the beauty and enjoyment that could be found on the canals.

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Millennium Link

 

The £84.5m Millennium Link project has restored the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals to their former glory, linking the west and east coasts of Scotland through fully navigable waterways . . . for the first time in over 35 years.

 

The Forth & Clyde Canal is the world's first man-made, sea-to-sea ship canal.  Re-connecting it to the Union Canal - to create a link between Edinburgh and Glasgow - is the new The Falkirk Wheel, the world's "first and only rotating boat lift".

      

  The Kelvin Launch

 

In the early 1990's the launch, then being used as a creel boat, was moored in Fisherrow Harbour Musselburgh when it was damaged and sank, then abandoned by its owner.

Being a hazard to navigation the harbour master had the council remove the wreck for burning.  As it happened the Society's boatman Bill Purves was there at the time and offered to take the remains with a view to rebuilding her.

Unfortunately we soon realised that it was well beyond our physical or financial means to restore the launch. Her price when new about 1930 was £219 and when she changed hands in the 1950's was £80, but now the cost of restoration was in the tens of thousands of  pounds.

A successful application was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund and in the autumn of 1999 her remains were removed to MacKay's boatyard in Arbroath. This is the same boatyard whose staff restored Captain Cook's "SS Discovery" now berthed in Dundee.

Working from original drawings the boatbuilders fitted new frames to replace those broken when she sank, removed all evidence of repairs outwith the design specification and restored our launch to original condition.

 

A First

 

In 2006 Kelvin became the first vessel in 35 years to travel from the centre of Edinburgh at Edinburgh Quay to the centre of Glasgow to take part in the opening of the new Port Dundas.