The Union Canal

Between Falkirk and Grangemouth, the canal passed through a ladder of 11 locks taking it down from 110ft above sea level down to the Firth of Forth.

Between 1817 and 1822, the Union Canal was built to link the centre of Edinburgh with the Forth and Clyde canal at Falkirk.

The Union Canal starts life in Edinburgh in the Fountainbridge area. If you are walking up from the city centre along Lothian Road, just after you pass The Meadows on the left you can take a right hand turn down the hill and you will see, if you are on the right street, the Leamington Lift Bridge. This provides a good access point onto the canal. You can walk for a few miles heading out of the city. Depending on the wind direction you might smell the sea, or else the brewery. The canal is usually quiet at night. Sometimes I would walk along it at two or three in the morning when the thoughts in my head were becoming too much to bear. The canal lies hidden, it runs behind the houses of the city.

You pass all of those lives unnoticed. The water is still. It is quiet. In the darkness it is calming.

After I started seeing a girl while I was still living in the city, we got into the habit of going for walks at night along the canal. I think it was the peacefulness we treasured. Her hand fit perfectly in the pocket of my grandfathers coat. Even in the winter I was able to keep her hand warm.

Two things happened to us on those walks that I would like to tell you about. I don't remember how long we had been seeing each other at this point, perhaps it was only a few months, we could read each others minds.

There were some swans living on the canal. Approaching the end of one of the tunnels. myself and the girl had paused to kiss a little. The swans had followed us. I had by back to the wall, she was leaning into me and I could see over her shoulder. The two swans were side by side in the water, not 3 meters from us, looking at us kissing. I caught their eyes. Staying where they were in the water they simply turned their heads to look away. They were bashful.

The swans became a fixture for us. We would go to see them, see if we could feed them. One day we went back. There was a man a woman and a dog on the bank. There was an argument. It is no longer clear to me exactly what happened. The dog was barking, almost out of control. It was trying to get away from its owners so that it could get into the water to attack one of the swans. The man and woman were arguing. I think he had been hitting her, I think she was trying to hold onto the dog. I think I asked if I could help, I am not sure even now. He threatened me, but not in a specific way. The dog was frantic, Myself and the girl walked away quickly, she was shaken, so was I.

We never went back to the canal.