Day 6 – 9th June – ‘The Kelpies’
Today we left Yellowcraig and started moving west, but only a short way as we are off to see The Kelpies and The Falkirk Wheel. The Kelpies are two huge (each 30 metres tall) stainless steel ‘Kelpie’ heads. Kelpie? Well, it’s a mythological water creature often taking the form of horses (think Nessie) that lure us humans to meet, greet and stroke them, and if you do it’s the end for you! The works are the vision of Andy Scott a renowned sculpture artist and he based the idea of the heads of the Kelpies rearing out of the water to get you, using Clydesdale horses as his models.
The sculptures are truly breath-taking and no number of pictures I took can really do them justice. It is a must place to visit if you are in the locale, however you can touch these, even pay to go inside to see the structure and the bonus is you won’t get eaten!
Day 7 – 10th June – The Falkirk Wheel
Cycling on the Forth and Clyde canal path was a real joy and straight out the back of our 2-night stopover, Underwood Farm. The air was filled with swallows feeding, the water clear and bright (yes, I know our canals in general are brown, so this was a real surprise to me) the sun was shining, and a light breeze washed over us en-route, bliss. This was another day of marvelling at our industrial heritage of the canals combined with a modern, practical piece of engineering that for all the world looked like another piece of sculpture. This marvel connected two canals at differing heights of around 30 metres, the Forth and Clyde which we cycled along and the Union Canal towering above it.
Immediately surrounding the area were huge public spaces for the benefit of the community, cycle paths and grassy football areas, playgrounds and patches left for wildflowers to flourish, one must assume these were part of the whole build project in 2001 to benefit all, not just the visitors.
And so, 2 days of sightseeing tourist hot spots ended, Janette and I agreed both were well worth the time and effort.