here's a bizarre place. it's the falkirk wheel. it's a magic lifty thing to get canal boats from the canal at the top to the canal (and vice versa). it saves having a load of locks.

now, i may be wrong, but there seems little point in trying to speed up the flow of traffic on canals since it's very charm is its slowness. and such a thoroughly modern solution is completely at odds with the historic nature of canal travel.

that aside, it is an amazing thing, especially the way the canal comes sweeping out of the countryside on a massive bridge:

looking along the top bit:

this chap was some kind of curator and had a fanastic posh english accent. a proper english gentleman: