Aerial view of Falkirk Wheel (c) Scottish Canals

The world's first and only rotating boat lift replaces the original lock flight that joined the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal.

Since it was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 2002, visitors have come from all over the world to marvel at this working sculpture which combines modern engineering and technology with ancient principles set out by Archimedes more than 200 years ago. The Wheel's iconic design has been judged alongside the likes of the Hoover Dam and The Channel Tunnel, as one of the most significant civil engineering projects of the last hundred years.

It was the largest engineering project for the Millennium Link project to reconnect the canals from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and coast to coast.

A new aqueduct carries the end of the Union Canal into mid air to meet the lift, 25m above the basin. It now only takes four minutes to go from the Union Canal down to the basin. It once took more than a day to go through all the locks.

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