Monkland

Back Blip

Home from church on Sunday and the sun was still shining, so it wasn't long before I was changed, fed and back out again. A good day, I thought, to go a bit 'off piste' with another leg of my Scottish Canals' Canal Challenge 200 escapades.

I drove down to Calderbank, near Airdrie, and walked the stretch of the Monkland Canal that remains above ground at this point. I started my walk from where the Canal joins the North Calder Water and walked westwards towards Airdrie. At Sykeside, about two miles further on, the Canal disappears under ground and doesn't reappear into view until just before Drumpellier Country Park in Coatbridge. I didn't go that far today and just returned the way I had come.

As can be seen from the photos, main plus extra, the water level in the Canal wasn't great and at some points it seemed no more than a swampy burn rather than the remnant of one our great waterways of the past.