Airthrey Castle, Robert Haldane, and the Falkirk Wheel
On Saturday I attended a tutorial at Stirling University for my Open University course. It turns out the University is on the site of Airthrey Estate, which was improved by Robert Haldane in the late 18th century with a new castle and massive tree planting, and then sold by him just before the end of the 18th century, if I remember aright to finance his evangelism and church planting work. I read about this a couple of years ago in "The Lives of Robert and James Haldane" on which I spent quite a few Lord's Day afternoons (though I didn't finish it).
Here is Airthrey Castle (though most of what you see here is 19th century extension):
And here are the grounds of the University:
The University itself is a "modern" low-rise concrete panel campus, though many of the panels are being replaced by something else at present.
In the afternoon my tutor took a few of us to the Falkirk Wheel, a major engineering project linking the Forth and Clyde Canal to a new extension of the Union Canal. Both canals had been closed for years, and the Wheel replaced a set of locks a mile or two away that had actually been dug up and built over.
Here are Rachel and Abigail (and a hidden Benjamin) at the Wheel:
We went on the short boat trip that British Waterways run. This is a view approaching the Wheel from the Union Canal, having gone through the tunnel under the Romans' Antonine Wall:
And finally, a view on the water, in mid-air, before the Wheel took us down again:
All photos click through to larger images. For more photos by someone else, click here.
Thanks to my tutor, Isobel Falconer, for a useful tutorial, and an enjoyable trip.
