2009

NS4473 : Millennium Link Monument

taken 15 years ago, near to Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland

Millennium Link Monument
Millennium Link Monument
The Millennium Link was a project to restore and join the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Union Canal, with the Falkirk Wheel (NS8580) providing the link between the two.

The monument shown here stands near Lock 40 at Bowling Harbour, right at the western end of the re-opened Forth and Clyde Canal. On the other side of the country, a similar monument stands at the eastern end, beside Lock 2.

(NOTE: the Millennium Link Monument shown here at Bowling in 2009 was later removed; compare the later views NS4473 : Changes at Bowling Harbour and NS4473 : Bowling Harbour.)

The wide base of the monument bears, on its upper white part, the words "THE MILLENNIUM LINK". Below that, some metal strips (a few are now missing) are wound around the shiny metal part of the base. The topmost one recorded that the Forth and Clyde Canal was re-opened on 26 May 2001, and that the Union Canal was to open, along with the Falkirk Wheel, in 2002. Below that, the names of various sponsors were listed.

Its location seems appropriate, in that the first-edition OS map of 1864 shows a flagstaff at the same spot.

For a closer look at the top of the monument, see Link

In the distance, a little promontory can be seen projecting behind and to the left of the base of the monument; it is possible to make out a small upright structure there: this is the obelisk of NS4373 : The Henry Bell Monument.

[The Millennium Link Monument lies only a few metres within the OS gridsquare, and the photographer was located more or less on the gridline.]
Millennium Link Monument

This monument marked the western end of the re-opened Forth and Clyde canal; a similar monument stood at the eastern end of the canal. By 2017, the monument at Bowling had been replaced by a flagpole.

Bowling Harbour

Parliamentary authority for the creation of an outer basin or harbour at Bowling Bay (as it was then called), along with associated wharves and quays, was obtained by the Canal Company in 1846. A lock would connect the harbour to the Forth and Clyde Canal. The Canal Company's Basin (the smaller, eastern end of the harbour, centred on NS44877355) has an area of about 3½ acres (about 1.4 ha); the first-edition map (surveyed in 1860) shows the lighthouse that stood at the end of the Company's wooden pier.

The Clyde Trustees separately formed a basin just west of that one (the larger, western part of the harbour, centred on NS44577362), for the use of vessels of deep draught, by means of a training dyke enclosing Bowling Bay. In about 1856, that training dyke was raised to about 8ft above the high water, and the enclosed basin was deepened. The tidal basin thus formed was about 8½ acres (about 3.4ha) in area. Clyde steamers were laid up here for the winter.

The difference in appearance between the outer walls at the western end of Bowling Bay and those at the eastern end is a consequence of their disparate origins: the western pier (for the Clyde Trustees) was of stone, and the eastern one (for the Canal Company) of timber. The shoreward side of the Bay has mooring posts built into strong masonry buttresses.

[Note that the Canal Company's harbour, described above, is distinct from the outer and inner canal basins at Bowling (those are centred on NS45037353 and NS45197355, respectively). The outer basin was in existence when the first-edition OS map was surveyed, but the inner basin was created later (c.1880).]

For a list of wrecks that are (or were formerly) in the harbour, see LinkExternal link (at Canmore).

References:

● James Deas "The River Clyde" (1876).
● OS Name Books: their entry for Bowling Harbour.
● John Bruce: "History of the Parish of West or Old Kilpatrick" (1893).

Forth and Clyde Canal

The Forth and Clyde Canal links Bowling on the Firth of Clyde with Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth. It allowed goods to be transported between the east and west coasts, and to be exported from Glasgow to Europe or from Edinburgh to America, without taking the hazardous route round the north of Scotland or the longer route via the English Channel.

It is 56 kilometres (35 miles) long and has 39 locks, and the highest point is 47 metres (155 feet) above sea level. Originally there were 33 drawbridges, ten large aqueducts and 33 smaller ones.

It was designed by the engineer John Smeaton and opened in 1790, after over 20 years of planning and construction.

With time seagoing vessels became too large to pass through the locks, and competition from the railways in the 19th century led to it being more or less disused, and it was closed in 1963.

However it was reopened as a Millennium project in 2001, and linked to the Union Canal by the Falkirk Wheel.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Canals Docks, Harbours Canal: Forth and Clyde Place: Bowling Category: Monument > Monument other tags: Forth and Clyde Canal Bowling Harbour Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
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NS4473, 253 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Lairich Rig   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Friday, 24 July, 2009   (more nearby)
Submitted
Saturday, 1 August, 2009
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 4499 7346 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:55.7488N 4:28.9602W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 4499 7346
View Direction
WEST (about 270 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Geograph
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