place

Monkland Canal

1770 establishments in Scotland1794 establishments in Scotland1942 disestablishments in the United KingdomBritish companies established in 1770Canals in Scotland
Canals opened in 1794CoatbridgeDefunct companies of ScotlandGeographic coordinate listsHistory of North LanarkshireLists of coordinatesScheduled monuments in ScotlandScottish CanalsTourist attractions in North LanarkshireTransport in GlasgowTransport in North LanarkshireUse British English from January 2018
MonklandCanalOldPalacecraigWeir
MonklandCanalOldPalacecraigWeir

The Monkland Canal was a 12+1⁄4-mile-long (19.7 km) canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course of a long and difficult construction process, it was opened progressively as short sections were completed, from 1771. It reached Gartcraig in 1782, and in 1794 it reached its full originally planned extent, from pits at Calderbank to a basin at Townhead in Glasgow; at first this was in two sections with a 96-foot (29 m) vertical interval between them at Blackhill; coal was unloaded and carted to the lower section and loaded onto a fresh barge. Locks were later constructed linking the two sections, and the canal was also connected to the Forth and Clyde Canal, giving additional business potential. Maintaining an adequate water supply was a problem, and later an inclined plane was built at Blackhill, in which barges were let down and hauled up, floating in caissons that ran on rails. Originally intended as a water-saving measure to be used in summer only, the inclined plane was found to pass barges more quickly than through the locks and may have been used all the year. In the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, technical advances in iron smelting coupled with fresh discoveries of abundant iron deposits and coal measures encouraged a massive increase in industrial activity in the Coatbridge area, and the Canal was ideally situated to feed the raw materials and take away the products of the industry. The development of railways reduced the competitiveness of the canal, and eventually it was abandoned for navigation in 1952, but its culverted remains still supply water to the Forth and Clyde Canal. Much of the route now lies beneath the course of the M8 motorway, but two watered sections remain, and are well stocked with fish.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Monkland Canal (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Monkland Canal
The North Calder Heritage Trail,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Monkland CanalContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 55.85075 ° E -3.9948333333333 °
placeShow on map

Address

The North Calder Heritage Trail

The North Calder Heritage Trail
ML6 9RQ
Scotland, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

MonklandCanalOldPalacecraigWeir
MonklandCanalOldPalacecraigWeir
Share experience

Nearby Places

Carnbroe

Carnbroe is a neighbourhood in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. A former industrial village, Carnbroe is located southeast of Coatbridge and southwest of neighbouring Airdrie. It lies above a meander of the North Calder Water, which flows around it in a steep gorge. Once it was a collier village and had large ironworks, the Calder Iron Works, which was built in 1838 immediately to the north, on the opposite bank of the river. It closed in 1921 and the village grew to occupy that site. Carnbroe now has a primary school, a grocery store, and a private nursery. The neighbourhood underwent a major extension, expanding over the North Calder Water, where further housing estates were built, as well as a state-of-the-art community centre. This also gave access to the village from Whifflet. Earl Grove Estate is in Greenend. Carbroe's village status is a hotly contested topic. Noted local philanthropist Prof. Mark Cowan weighed into the debate by declaring that " when Sikeside is your neighbour you'd want to be a village too". Prof. Cowan's sentiment was also echoed by the defacto mayor of Carnbroe Philip "pip" DiNardo who stated that "it's aye been a village by the way". However statistics show that 71.3% of Coatbridgians believe Carnbroe is merely "another scheme" albeit with better, roughcasted houses.In 2016 it was announced that due to the expansion of the A8 and M8 roads, Carnbroe would be the first village to benefit from a state-of-the-art Community Unification New Terrain Scheme. The whole village will be annexed and digging will begin to lift the whole village and move it to the nearby Chapelhall. Sadly though in 2019 Carnbroe was informed of the sad passing of their beloved local philanthropist professor Mark Cowan.Carnbroe is noted as the last resting place of Professor Cowan, best known for his studies of the flora and fauna of the Lanarkshire cave network.