Student Bloggers
Falkirk Trip: A Mix of Old and New
Date
February 16, 2016
All journeys have secret destinations in which the traveler is unaware”
- Martin Buber
This past weekend I had opportunity to visit the town of Falkirk through one of Arcadia’s optional excursions. Falkirk is located in Scotland’s central belt and is between Edinburgh and Glasgow. I spent Friday night in Edinburgh and then left early Saturday morning by bus to get to Falkirk.
Our first stop was a tour of the Kelpies structure. So what exactly are Kelpies? According to folklore, Kelpies are creatures that live in bodies of water that shape-shift into horses to try to draw humans near and drown them. While in folklore the Kelpies are seen as something to be feared, today the Kelpies are represented by two giant steel structures both shaped as a horse’s head- the Clydesdale horse to be exact! They are the world’s largest equine structure! It is truly an astonishing piece of work.
The Falkirk Wheel is another interesting piece of architecture that I got to visit. It is the only rotating boatlift in the world-and I got to ride in it! It was designed in inspiration of a Celtic double-headed axe, the propeller of a ship and the ribcage of a whale and opened in 2002. As soon as we all got on the boat it started snowing and it didn’t stop for the rest of the day!
Later, we took a step back through time as we went to Rough Castle to see the Antonine Wall. This was actually built by the Romans and very little of it remains. Since it was snowing so much, we didn’t really get to see too much but it was very picturesque with all the snow covering all the fields and trees.
After, we got to tour the Callendar House which dates back to the 14th century. It was absolutely gorgeous! It even has a Georgian period kitchen where they had different types of foods you could try.
I had a truly amazing weekend experiencing an encounter of both new and old from the modern architecture of the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel to the ancient Roman Antonine Wall.