FALKIRK WALKS AND TALKS
Scotland, walking, and people and history
Simply, Falkirk stands at the centre of Scotland and it also happens to be where I live. It was also the place where I settled for 18 years. and it felt like home. I married here, at Bothkennar Church, and my two kids are Bairns. We moved to Albion’s Plain in 1999, and returned in 2018. Oh, and Falkirk has won national awards for walking.
a website about
so, WHY
I am Russ Edwards and I used to be a social worker, (but I’m better now…)
Originally, this website was aimed at attracting folks to join walks in the Falkirk area (mostly). It was supposed to be a walking business, but that didn’t really work: I have the business acumen of a Christmas pudding and there was no take up. Such is life.
So now I write about things that interest me and which may be of interest to the passing browser. Or surfer (is that current?)
And the impact of COVID meant that the whole thing ground to a hald
Unfortunately, the development of the WW1 elements of the site was somewhat kyboshed by the deletion of most of the work already completed to that point. The walking element was not affected but the pages supporting the WW1 project were all deleted although the supporting data was preserved. Back to the drawing board……
Kyboshed!
Fortunately most of the content survived and the work continued/s
Anyhoo, just now, the site focuses on two main areas :
The 40 men on the Bothkennar Parish Church
World War 1 memorial
and
Walking in Scotland (and beyond)
(And some random writings and photography)
The (currently two available) buttons below will enable navigation around the site using the two strands i.e. the Bothkennar Memorial and Walking in Scotland. The buttons below take you down the relevant wormholes…
Site Navigation
The lonely boots in the top left of page headers will return you to the first page: use the drop down menus from the green bars to explore more pages
001
Click on the circled Green Bars in header top right on main header to access the menus.
MECHANICS
The mechanics of the site are fairly clunky, reflecting my somewhat clunky techy abilities. Apologies. In particular the small black bars in the top right hand corner of each page have a bad habit of hiding. They are there, honest….
The main Navigation is through the black bar icon in the top right hand corner of the banner header at the top of each page: this will open the drop down menu for the various pages.
Try it!
The important thing to remember that, beyond this introductory page, the BLACK BARS allow access to more pages
Please let me know if you have suggestions that clarify the navigation and enable accessing detailed pages.
The BLACK AND WHITE BAR TRIGRAM
Historically Falkirk has connected Edinburgh in the east and Glasgow in the west and Stirling, the gateway to the Highlands and the North East coastal fringe to the North. With the mass of the Braes and Southern Uplands to the south, the Forth to the east and the Highlands to the north it has seen and been part of significant historic events throughout the ages. A starting point at the very least. But let’s not be modest: in July 2019, Falkirk was awarded the prize for Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood. I would argue that Falkirk is an overlooked jewel in the centre of Scotland. Lacking the strut of Edinburgh with its castle, festival and tattoo and the sheer brash vibrancy of Glasgow, Falkirk is an understated testament to both ordinary lives and extraordinary events. It is a place and a way: it rests at the edge of the Forth on the Antonine Wall, the Roman frontier between North and South, between Empire and Barbarians.
Click the yellow bars in the header on each page to access the drop down index of pages: you will probably need to look hard for the yellow bars: apologies - beyond the reach of my techy skills. If you search you will find (if you look hard - sorry) the bars in the main header at the top of the page including on this page.
Throughout the site, purple buttons are used for navigation to additional information
Spot the Bars………….
At this point the website trail splits between FALKIRK WALKS AND TALKS, which is mostly about walking,
and the 40 MEN - WW1 BOTHKENNAR LINK which is about the 40 men of Bothkennar on the memorial in Bothkennar church
Please click the FALKIRK WALKS AND TALKS or 40 MEN - WW1 BOTHKENNAR buttons below to select a strand according to wish, whim or need. Cheers, Russ
The Boot Photo Logo in the top left hand corner on each page header will returns you to the HOME PAGE.
(It has a story behind it. Not a great story, but it is a good memory of a fine place. In Spain…..)
The lost WW1 Bothkennar sections are currently being re-written and will be/are accessible by clicking the Bothkennar button below. You may wish to experience the thrill of following the roll out… or not.
Click Below for things relating to 40 Men of Bothkennar which is the current focus or the walking stuff which is (13 Aug 2021) on a back burner
The Antonine Wall was at one time the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. It created both a barrier and also a road behind it running between east and west coasts, between the Clyde and the Forth. That road, and the road that extended north along the Gask Ridge to the barrier of the Highland line represented the northernmost extension of the Roman Empire.
THE FORTH FROM DUMYAT LOOKING BACK TOWARDS THE FORTH, FALKIRK, GRANGEMOUTH, BOTHKENNAR AND THE KELPIES
The canals, the Forth and Clyde and, later, the Union Canal were at the centre of the industrial revolution, the revolution that changed the life of people in Scotland for ever. Through the agency of canals industry thrived and grew, driven by coal and iron: the canals created a highway that providing viable routes between the two great competing cities of Scotland. Later the railways when they came pushed the industrial revolution further. Through the Forth and Clyde Valley, over the flat lands and the kerse lands, up the braes above Falkirk, Falkirk was at the forefront of innovation and created an identity based on hard physical labour and iron craft.
More recently the motorway system that loops around Falkirk has become the a mirror of and replacement for the railway system set up by the Victorians. Falkirk is now a place passed around, drawing in visitors mostly passing through on the road to somewhere else, attracting coaches calling in to eat and souvenir at the Kelpies or at the Wheel.
And, now of course, there is The John Muir Way, the latest line drawn across Scotland, often following the older ways. Especially in, through and around Falkirk. Falkirk’s history is a history of Scotland.
The Antonine Wall - Roughcastle Fort
The frontier of the civilised world running from Bo’ness in the east and Old Kirkpatrick in the west.
The Kids, indulging their Dad - Azumi, Moo and Ash
The Kelpies
A celebration of Falkirk and Scotland as a place of work symbolised by water horses with the heads of Clydesdales, the archetypical Scottish working horse.
The Kelpies stand guard over the end of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which ends in Grangemouth, the town that was created by the building of the Canal.
The Wheel from the New Tunnel, joining the Union Canal to the Wheel itself. And the Kelpies.
The Falkirk Tunnel
The old Falkirk Tunnel between the Falkirk High Railway Station with the Canal to Edinburgh
The story runs that the notorious Edinburgh murderers, Burke and Hare worked for a time on the creation of the Falkirk Tunnel
Canal boat on its way west
CALLeNDaR HOUSE
A good starting point: previously owned by Lords and Entrepreneurs, now the home of the Falkirk Museum and the Falkirk Archives
the burial mound
Burial place of victims of the storming of Callendar House by the besieging forces of Oliver Cromwell
The Antonine Wall - Watling Lodge
Two Bairns and a Dug: the fosse at Watling Lodge fortlet: where the road to the North began
In 142 AD, the Romans moved the frontier north from Hadrian’s Wall and built the Antonine Wall for the new Emperor Antoninus to further the reach of Rome.
The frontier was just that: as much a wall to levy taxes and to control the movement of peoples. The Roman presence continued north with a chain of marching and base forts which ran along the Highland Line as far as the Moray Firth
Reflecting on a Kelpie
The Falkirk Wheel
The Wheel celebrates the Millenium, reconnecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal making a canal journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh possible once again.
The Wheel, wheeling