Aquaducts

Britain's canal system has a bunch of aquaducts along it and for some reason I find this really strange. I know we have aquaducts in Canada (I can think of one... so maybe not all that common) and I completely understand the purpose/necessity of having them, I just think a bridge with water on it (as opposed to under it) is a bit weird. Nonetheless, a couple of weekends ago, I went to see one. I walked along the Union Canal from Falkirk (home of the Falkirk Wheel) to Linlithgow (home of all things Linlithgow). Along the way sits the Avon Aquaduct - Scotland's longest and tallest aquaduct at 250m long and 26m high.



Avon Aquaduct from the bottom

Not being a fan of heights by any means, I really don't know why I thought it would be fun to walk along an aquaduct. Things were fine until I got about halfway across where, all of a sudden, I became completely convinced I was going to fall into the canal. Why? I have no idea. The path beside the canal was at least a metre and a half wide and I had a really good railing to hold on to. Maybe I knew that I wasn't going to fall off the aquaduct because of the railing so I figured I would fall the other way into the canal. It made for a tense time walking over the rest of the aquaduct with a death grip on the railing but I made it without falling and then spent the next 15 minutes laughing at myself.

Avon Aquaduct
(note the easiness of not falling into the canal)