At one time this was the country`s most important canal as it linked the Firths of Clyde and Forth and thus allowed passage for boats right across Scotland. As a result factories set up along its banks, thereby helping to develop the industrial might of the Central Belt.

Its inception was fraught with difficulties, to say nothing of political in-fighting, and it was fully open from coast to coast in 1790, over two decades after it was started. It finally closed to commercial traffic in 1963 and parts of it have since been culverted. However, many canal enthusiasts have maintained boats on the waterway and their campaigning efforts over the years have kept alive the prospect of reopening the canal. Ambitious development plans have been drawn up and it is hoped that a large injection of funds will allow the canal to become once more a lively and important route through the middle of the country.

Articles on the Forth and Clyde Canal:

This is Spiers Wharf, once one of the busiest places on the canal.

These large eighteenth-century buildings contained warehouses and a sugar mill. By the end of the twentieth century they had become very run down but instead of being demolished they were converted into houses and offices in 1988-9.