The Falkirk Wheel is a boat lift connecting the Union Canal with the Forth and Clyde Canal, transferring boats between the two stretches of water using a rotating mechanism that is unique in the world. Not only does it look fabulous but it’s highly efficient, managing to shift a combined weight of 500 tons twenty four metres up and down for about the energy of eight kettles boiling. Physics at work right there!

After a short wait for our slot to come up a large capacity tourist boat came alongside and took all of us on this cruise excursion as well as other groups of visitors for the ride we’d come to try out. Our boat made its way into the lower gondola where a watertight seal was locked into place. Above us a similar thing would have been happening for any transport coming down, all of this managed by a control room. With each gondola containing effectively water to a certain level, some of that displaced by a boat, and Archimedes’ principles of water displacement holding true, each gondola was evenly-balanced regardless of whether it was occupied or not. Physics again! Is there anything it can’t explain!?

As the lift rotates it’s necessary to also rotate the contents of each gondola – water and boat – because otherwise you’d end up upside down at the other end and, generally, that’s considered not desirable. Geared sections keep everything level with the result being that the action of being lifted or lowered is incredibly smooth, incredibly quiet, and you may not even notice you’re moving at all to start with. We certainly didn’t.

At the top we waited for the watertight seal to be unlocked and our boat made its way out along a raised section of canal with some lovely views out across the Scottish landscape. Part of this short trip involved passing through the Roughcastle Tunnel which itself runs beneath the Antonine Wall, a more northerly fortified line built by the Romans but one which has survived less well due to it being constructed from wood and turf rather than stones.

At the end of the tunnel there was a basin area wide enough for our boat to turn around, head back through, then re-enter the Falkirk Wheel at the top for the descent back to the visitor centre.

It wasn’t a long experience, but it was one that you can only do here in Scotland and we are very much into experiential travel, with the rarer ones being the ones we seek out most often. We enjoyed the excursion as a whole even though it involved a fair bit of travelling to get there and back to Greenock and if we were to return to this part of the world on another cruise then we’d like to check out Glasgow next time.

Back aboard Regal Princess for the evening we followed our usual routine of enjoying some drinks on the balcony and admiring the views while it was dry and not too cold. Even under dull grey sky the distant hills and fields had a charm that we imagine a lot of the Americans aboard in particular found delightful.

We’d booked the Crown Grill for dining on this night of the British Isles cruise as it’s something we generally enjoy when we cruise with Princess Cruises. We are somewhat set in our ways with what we pick from the menu and it was all as excellent as it always is. Nobody has beaten Princess for their filet mignon on a cruise ship, yet. That said, with recent price increases we’ve seen (at time of writing this, early 2026) it’s now something we probably won’t be doing every cruise moving forward.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll make our first visit to the Shetland Islands where a very foggy Lerwick and local tour group problems see our plans for the day torn up and thrown away before we even set foot ashore.