Boat Trips
We run trips lasting about 25 minutes, from Port Buchan in Broxburn, every first sunday of the month from April until October..
You can read more about our trips our Trips page.
Why not arrange an exclusive trip for yourself and up to 11 friends or family (12 passengers is our limit). You can hire Bluebell along with a crew for very reasonable rates. Contact Ann for more information.
Gala Events
Union 10 celebrations
We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the re-opening of the Union Canal, and this will be celebrated with a flotilla of 60+ boats travelling from Edinburgh to Falkirk over the weekend of 25/26 September 2010.
The flotilla will set out from Edinburgh Quay at 9am on Saturday 25th October, aiming to get to Linlithgow by Saturday evening.
On Sunday 26th the flotilla will continue to Brightons, at the top of the Falkirk wheel.
Bluebell will have the honour of leading the flotilla from the Almond Aquaduct to Winchburgh on Saturday. We will have a piper on the Bow and she'll be lined with garlands and decorations. We are aiming to give her a fresh coat of paint on Saturday 11th September, so hopefully she'll be ship-shape for the procession.
Come down to the canal and cheer us through. This is the first time such a large gathering has taken place on the Union Canal and we hope we can get some good autumn weather to help us make it a success.
For more information, see: Edinburgh News from 6th September, or Union Canal history by the Edinburgh Photographic Society.
Edinburgh Canal Festival
The Edinburgh Canal Festival takes place on Saturday 26th June 2010. We'll be there with Bluebell running trips.
Weight on the Almond aqueduct
So you're looking for the solution. Here's what I think:
The aqueduct is 420 feet long and 12 feet 6 inches wide. That's a surface area of 5,250 square feet (multiply 420 X 12.5).
If the canal is 5 feet deep throughout the whole length, that's 26,250 cubic feet (multiply 5,250 X 5).
The weight of 26,250 cubic feet of water is 743,583Kg (0dp), and as there is 1000Kg in a metric ton, that's around 744 tons.
As you travel across this 200 year old "tin bath" - a cast iron trough less than 1 inch thick holding 744 (3sf) tons of water, it actually weighs no more than usual. A boat will always displace it's own weight in water, so Bluebell will push around 4 tons of water out of the Almond aqueduct for the duration of its crossing time.
