1 descent of four double locks; two other locks (The descent was duplicated for a period by a rope-worked inclined plane)
Status
Unnavigable, partly culverted
History
Original owner
Monkland Canal Company
Principal engineer
James Watt
Date of act
1770
Date of first use
Progressively from 1771
Date closed
1942
Geography
Start point
Calderbank, near Airdrie
End point
Townhead Basin, Glasgow (Later connected to the Forth and Clyde Canal by the "cut of junction")
Branch(es)
Four short branches
Connects to
Forth and Clyde Canal
Historic site
Scheduled monument
Official name
Monkland Canal, Gartsherrie Branch, Summerlee
Type
Industrial: inland water
Designated
16/12/2013
Reference no.
SM11340
v
t
e
Monkland Canal
Legend
Hillend Reservoir
N Calder Water feeder
(culvert)
Calderbank
Upper Faskine bridge
Faskine basin
Lower Faskine bridge
Palacecraig weir
culverted section
Sykeside Road bridge
Caledonian Line viaduct
Sheepford top lock
B753 Locks Street bridge
Sheepford basin
Sheepford bottom lock
Calder Ironworks branch
Dundyvan branch
Howes Basin
Summerlee Heritage Park
Gartsherrie branch
Langloan branch
watered section
Blair Road, Coatbridge
Drumpellier Country Park
Drumpeller Colliery basin
railway bridge
culverted section
A752 embankment
M73 motorway embankment
Netherhouse Road bridge
M8 built over route from here
Blackhill locks (2+2)
Graving Dock
Blackhill locks (2+2)
Blackhill locks (2+2)
Blackhill inclined plane
Blackhill locks (2+2)
Townhead basin
cut to Forth and Clyde Canal
The Monkland Canal was a 12+1⁄4-mile-long (19.7 km) canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course of a long and difficult construction process, it was opened progressively as short sections were completed, from 1771. It reached Gartcraig in 1782, and in 1794 it reached its full originally planned extent, from pits at Calderbank to a basin at Townhead in Glasgow; at first this was in two sections with a 96-foot (29 m) vertical interval between them at Blackhill; coal was unloaded and carted to the lower section and loaded onto a fresh barge. Locks were later constructed linking the two sections, and the canal was also connected to the Forth and Clyde Canal, giving additional business potential.
Maintaining an adequate water supply was a problem, and later an inclined plane was built at Blackhill, in which barges were let down and hauled up, floating in caissons that ran on rails. Originally intended as a water-saving measure to be used in summer only, the inclined plane was found to pass barges more quickly than through the locks and may have been used all the year.
In the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, technical advances in iron smelting coupled with fresh discoveries of abundant iron deposits and coal measures encouraged a massive increase in industrial activity in the Coatbridge area, and the Canal was ideally situated to feed the raw materials and take away the products of the industry.
The development of railways reduced the competitiveness of the canal, and eventually it was abandoned for navigation in 1952, but its culverted remains still supply water to the Forth and Clyde Canal. Much of the route now lies beneath the course of the M8 motorway, but two watered sections remain, and are well stocked with fish. Additionally, the Gartsherrie branch of the canal, which passes through Summerlee Heritage Park, was designated a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland in 2013.[1]
The MonklandCanal was a 12+1⁄4-mile-long (19.7 km) canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course...
above-mentioned [the Forth and Clyde, the canal], is joined by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, near Falkirk; with the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway at...
The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway was an early mineral railway running from a colliery at Monklands to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch...
and includes two scheduled monuments, Summerlee Iron Works and the MonklandCanal, a large play area, mine and miners' row, outdoor exhibits, a cafe,...
orchards" and "luxurious crops", where "rivers abound with salmon". The MonklandCanal was constructed at the end of the 18th century initially to transport...
Canal, Wales opened in 1837, including two counterbalanced inclined planes and one single-track one. 1849–1942 – Inclined plane built on the Monkland...
important source of the water supply for the MonklandCanal and further downstream, the Forth and Clyde Canal at Glasgow. The loch is now used for fly fishing...
The following list of canals in the United Kingdom, includes some systems that are navigable rivers with sections of canal (e.g. Aire and Calder Navigation)...
Hill from 1800 onwards. The opening of the MonklandCanal and basin linking to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port Dundas in 1795, facilitated access to...
other markets from the Monkland coalfields, shortening the journey and bypassing the monopolistic charges of the MonklandCanal; passenger traffic also...
establishment of a chemical works by Charles Tennant on the newly opened MonklandCanal at nearby St. Rollox in 1799, which later became part of the United...
areas of Craighead, Blackhill and Blochairn, where it passed under the MonklandCanal. Approaching the city, the course turned south past "Kirk" and down...
taken over by the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1855; and, together with the Forth and Clyde Canal and the MonklandCanal, was taken over by the Caledonian...
Junctions at Falkirk with the Union Canal and at Maryhill to the MonklandCanal completed the network. The canal reopened in 2003 to non-commercial navigation...
woodlands and open grassland. The MonklandCanal lies towards the southern perimeter of the park. The lochs and the canal attract many water birds, both...
Clyde Canal Company. Port Dundas formed the terminus of a branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal in the centre of Glasgow, linking to the adjacent Monkland Canal...
native Coatbridge to unveil a superhero-themed steel archway beside the MonklandCanal, created by sculptor Andy Scott with the help from the students at St...
environs are much affected by patterns of Ice Age melt. The former MonklandCanal to the immediate north of modern Riddrie was begun by James Watt in...
Calderbanks works was used to build the Queen Mary cruise liner. The MonklandCanal was extended to the west of the village in the late 18th century and...
cheaply to Glasgow from the plentiful Monklands coalfield had been met by the construction of the MonklandCanal, opened throughout in 1794. This encouraged...
responsible for five canals. Caledonian – 60 miles (97 km) Crinan – 9 miles (14 km) Forth and Clyde – 35 miles (56 km) Monkland (no longer operational...
and it was built in the then rural area of Riddrie adjacent to the MonklandCanal (now the route of the M8 motorway), first opening with the commissioning...
The Carlisle Canal opened in 1823, linking Carlisle to the Solway Firth, to facilitate the transport of goods to and from the city. It was a short-lived...
Maryhill is the 'Glasgow Branch' a spur which originally connected to the MonklandCanal (which connected with Port Dundas, close to the city centre of Glasgow)...
those at Maryhill and Kirkintilloch on the Forth & Clyde Canal, and Blackhill on the MonklandCanal. Over the same time period, it is estimated that more...
Monkland Railways, the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway and the Scottish Central Railway, and the Forth and Clyde Canal, the Union Canal and...
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