Scotland’s newest canal named in honour of queen

The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh boarded the Seagull Trust barge the ‘Wooden Spoon Seagull’ and led a small flotilla along Scotland’s newest canal section, built as part of the £43m Helix project which features the internationally-acclaimed, 30-metre-high Kelpies sculptures, before unveiling a plaque officially naming the new section the Queen Elizabeth II Canal.

The unveiling was accompanied by a breathtaking aerobatic display from the Global Stars stunt flying team.

The Helix, driven by a partnership of Falkirk Council, Scottish Canals and the Central Scotland Green Network Trust, and supported with £25m in National Lottery funding from the Big Lottery Fund along with £480,000 of funding through Sustrans Scotland’s Community Links programme, has transformed 350 hectares of underused land between Falkirk and Grangemouth into a vibrant parkland, visitor attraction and marine hub with the canal and The Kelpies at its heart. The site is now managed by Falkirk Community Trust on behalf of the partners.

The Queen Elizabeth II Canal forms the eastern gateway to the Forth & Clyde Canal, which carves across Scotland from Bowling in the west to Grangemouth and the River Carron in the east.

One of the most complex sections of waterway ever constructed in Scotland, the Queen Elizabeth II Canal passes underneath two major trunk roads and across utility pipelines, demanding innovative engineering solutions from a UK-wide team of experts.

Communities Secretary Angela Constance said: “I’m delighted to attend the official naming of this new stretch of canal by Her Majesty The Queen.

“The Queen Elizabeth II Canal has transformed access for mariners from Northern Europe and created a world-class marine hub in and out of Scotland. I’d like to congratulate all the organisations involved in developing this innovative and new section of canal, the Helix Park and the Kelpies, which have helped boost the local economy and tourism in the area.”

The Helix project and the canal at its heart have transformed the maritime experience of sailors arriving from across Northern Europe and beyond and created a world-class marine hub into and out of Scotland. The one-kilometre canal returns the Forth & Clyde back to its birthplace in Grangemouth some 250 years after it was built. The QEII Canal is the final piece of the Millennium Link – an £83.5 million project that restored the nation’s inland waterways to a navigable state for the first time in more than 50 years and saw the construction of the iconic Falkirk Wheel.

Andrew Thin, Chairman of Scottish Canals, said: “The Kelpies and the Queen Elizabeth II Canal are helping put Falkirk and Grangemouth on tourists’ ‘to-see’ lists the world over and serve as a towering tribute to the industrial past of the area and a symbol of its bright future. We’d like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who has visited the new canal by boot, boat or bike since its completion and look forward to welcoming even more visitors in the years to come.”

Since The Helix was opened in April 2014, more than 2.5 million visitors from all over the world have stood in the shadow of The Kelpies, taken to its 27km of paths by boot or bike – which form a key part of the National Cycle Network – or watched boats travelling along the new canal. The project has brought renewed vibrancy to the area and boosted the local economy by an estimated £1.5m per year.