Good morning Good morning. and welcome to a very chilly Scotland. It's very cold. Coats on today. Excuse the mustard stain on Shaun's jacket Who, who, I mean who got up
one morning and decided that they were going to put
mustard in a squirty bottle. I mean you don't do you? Mustard isn't, mustard is
something you spread or dip. Yes. Really, isn't it, you don't you don't. I mean are you a dipper or a squirter? [Laughs] Don't answer that actually,
it's a bit early isn't it for that. Errr anyway, we are [Laughs], you alright? We're in the ancient town of Linlithgow,
which is in West Lothian in Scotland. We're on the Union Canal and we
set off from Edinburgh not long ago. If you haven't seen that one
go back and watch that one. [Shaun] Yeah turn this one off
and go back and watch that one then come back and watch this one. Now Linlithgow, no relation to John. Well in the in the olden days it was
actually very hot on the leather scene [Shaun] Was it? Yeah, they made, well
they met a lot of leather. [Shaun] Oh right. Some very famous people
were born around here, Yes. King James V was born in Linlithgow. Mary Queen of Scots,
she was born in Linlithgow, that's going back a bit isn't it. A bit more modern, the former First Minister of
Scotland, Alex Salmond was brought up round here. Was he? But even more famous, somebody
who hasn't even been born yet, who's more famouser
than all of them put together. That hasn't been born yet? Nope, he was born in
Linlithgow on the 28th of June 2222, or he will be according to
a plaque in the museum. Montgomery Scott. Ooooh Scotty! The Chief Engineer of the enterprise, according to Star Trek law,
he will be born in Linlithgow, right here, well not obviously here by the canal, [Laughs] because it will have probably undergone
its third or fourth restoration by 2222 It'll be somebody else
playing Scotty by then. They'll be hoverboats. [Laughs] There will. No, we've had boats haven't we? we've got Hovercraft,
yeah we've got them. He will be born here in 2222
and there is actually a plaque in the museum, in town dedicated to Scotty,
saying that he will be born here. There you go. How cool is that. Today we're going to continue
our journey down the Union Canal, we're heading towards Falkirk, we're going to cross the
longest aqueduct in Scotland. Yes. We're going to see quite a lot of history. Probably a lot of wind. Yeah it's very windy and
we're going to end the day in the most interesting
tunnel you have ever seen. Now even if you have no
interest in tunnels whatsoever, You'll like this one. I guarantee you will like this one. [Music playing] Lilithgow is packed with history, we could make a whole
episode just about this town. Just over the hedge here, down the hill, over the
railway line, across the car park from Tesco, [Shaun] A hike. [Laughs] is the ruin of Linlithgow Palace. It's very popular, it's one of the
favourite places of the Stuart Kings Who's Stuart King? No, the Stuart Kings, like the royals of the time. Related to Larry King? Not related to Larry King or Stephen King or any other King. King James V was born there,
as was his daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, but it's fell into rack and ruin
over the years, in fact it's roofless. They should never have killed her. No, not ruthless, they shouldn't have killed her, but not ruthless, roofless,
it hasn't got a roof on it. You said ruth. Over a thousand years before Star Trek's,
Scotty was even said to have been born here, a royal manor existed in Linlithgow, which was gradually extended over
the next couple of hundred years. In 1424 most of Linlithgow the village, including the palace and the
church was destroyed by a huge fire and it was King James I, who set about
rebuilding the palace in church again. It's had a colourful history, most of its inhabitants have made some
form of structural alteration over the years. The worst one though must have
been the Duke of Cumberland's Army, they destroyed most of it in 1746, they burnt it down just after Bonnie Prince
Charlie had visited here on his march south. Since that fire various groups over the years
have tried to maintain what's left of the palace. Nowadays, Historic Environment
Scotland manage the palace and the site's open to visitors,
well subject to the Covid restrictions, where you can come and have a walk
around and learn more about its history. [Music playing] The palace is set in its own park and by my standards, a park has
to have swings for it to be a park. [Laughs] I don't know what he's laughing at,
there were actual swings there, I had to go. [Shaun] I know. The loch next to it, Linlithgow Loch, is apparently packed with
fish, Rainbow Trout in there. Ooooh, I like a bit of Rainbow Trout. Even the fish are gay around here. [Laughs] [Music playing] Just by the bridge is the
Linlithgow Union Canal Society, but and no disrespect to them
because they do a fab job. But [Laughs] on the other side of
the canal is a bronze statue of a cat called [Said in a Dudley accent]
Dudley! [Laughs] A cat called Dudley and it's ace, it's like a bronze
statue on this stone plinth next to some really lovely gardens and it's there because of Dudley's owner, who was called Liz Burrows and she was a supporter
and actively involved in helping a society in Linlithgow that helps to make the town a
bit more beautiful for visitors, so they plant hanging
baskets and do gardens. They were doing some work on the gardens while
we were there getting water a few moments ago. They work really hard
and they're all volunteers and when Liz passed away, she left a sum to support
the society that looks after it, hence, the statue of Dudley the Cat appeared. [Shaun] Awesome. Even the original cat, who's
passed away, Dudley's dead now, but he was a very handsome little cat. Yes. He'd have had him for breakfast. Dogs always lose against cats. [Music playing] Do you like the weed chopper? Chopper. [Laughs] This is a pretty quiet canal compared
to many on the english side of the border and on an average day we might only see one or two boats pass by and we could be cruising for five or six hours, that shows how quiet it is. At one point when we were on the
Grand Union Canal not so long ago, there was maybe six boats an hour
passing us, maybe more sometimes More. And because of that, the weed tends to
overtake and overgrow on the canals quite a lot, so the weed chopper that we just passed, plays
an important role in keeping the channel clear and we've noticed quite a few times, where it's been down to where you can only really
squeeze one boat through because of the weeds. [Music playing] It's a bit chilly so we've had to get a brew. I've drank mine. and eaten his biscuits. So why did they call it the Union Canal? because it was paid for by ASLEF. [Laughs] No! the TUC No! No it wasn't, or was it because they didn't
know how to spell onion. Might be. [Laughs] The Onion Canal [Laughs] Can you imagine that. It's because it linked the two big
cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, so it brought them together as a union, because
they could trade and get goods between each other pretty quickly in a couple of days in some
cases, which is pretty fast I tell you now. For canals. I thought you swore then. [Laughs] But after the canal closed in the 1960's, it was abandoned and the weeds took over and gradually the weeds encroached
from each side in the middle and it stopped navigation altogether. In fact they started doing marathons, where
people had to get from Edinburgh to Glasgow using the canal with all the weeds
and everything and it was a marathon and it was an actual competition. WOW! What? You seem genuinely impressed by that. I'm genuinely shocked. it was a thing, have a look at
this picture at woodcockdale. He's done it again. That's alright, what? [pLaughs] and it's thought that the
marathons were like a precursor to getting restoration projects underway, which finally happened a few
years ago and the canal reopened. [Music playing] We're just coming up to the Avon Aqueduct, it's the longest and tallest
aqueduct in the whole of Scotland. YAY! It's seconded only to the
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales, so it's a big-un is this one. It crosses the River Avon, which is weird, because we're there a few weeks ago? I think we were. This is a different River Avon,
this is a river over in Scotland, which rises in Avonhead, although some rebels still say that it
comes out of a hole at Fannyside Loch. [Laughing] It doesn't, it really doesn't,
it comes out at Avonhead. [Music playing] It's so easy to cross aqueducts like this one and not give a second thought
to just how much work went into designing and building them back
in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hundreds of men were working day and night
building these twelve 50 feet long arches which carry the canal 86 feet above the River Avon and over 800 feet across this huge valley. The stone towpath offers an
amazing view right down the valley, but to get a true idea of just how
big and magnificent this structure is, have a walk down to the riverbank
and check it out from down here. [Music playing] Did you notice that it looked
very similar to Almond Aqueduct, do you remember the
one we saw last time? Yes. and that's because Mr. Thomas Telford our hero, [Shaun] Tommy. [Colin] Tommy [Laughs] came and gave Hugh Baird a little bit of advice, because he'd just built the
Pontcysyllte and Chirk Aqueducts in Wales, so he knew what he was talking about
when it came to crossing valleys with canals and he'd just perfected
that iron trough technique which he'd used on both
of his aqueducts in Wales. So he came and gave Hugh Baird
a bit of advice on how to build them and that's why they look pretty similar. Did you notice that the east end of
this one though, it's a little bit curved. Why? Cos for! [Music playing] In the early hours of the
12th of August last year, 2020. there was a big storm around here,
80 millimeters of rain fell overnight, 40 millimeters in one hour. Now normally a lot of the water,
the rain water, comes into the canals via streams and some into rivers. But a culvert just nearby had got blocked up and all the rain was
building up behind it like a dam and eventually it became too much,
the pressure was too much and it burst and 12 and a half thousand cubic meters of
water came rushing down into the canal here. Now the canal can't cope
with that amount of water and it over tops the canal right here on
our starboard side where we are now and the embankment
basically just gave way, it collapsed and 75,000 cubic meters of water came
crashing down out of the canal into the fields, flooding the farms. It washed away
300 meters of railway track on the main line between Edinburgh and
Glasgow, just to our right hand side. It was terrible and Scottish Canal staff
were rushing to try and block the canal off because this pound is 31 miles long. That's a lot of water to have rushing
down and flooding the farmland. It's a miracle that not so long later, it's like
just over a year later, we're cruising by it and
it's as if nothing happened. The only sign really that you can tell, is where they've rebuilt the embankment,
put the big stones on to reinforce it. [Shaun] The new bit of banking. [Colin] Yeah what a major
feat of engineering that was. [Music playing] We've saved the best bit to last, we're just coming up towards Falkirk Tunnel,
I've been looking forward to this. 2,000 feet long, 18 feet wide and 19 feet high, it's even got enough room inside
it for a five foot wide towpath. That's a big towpath. It's big, is that. You alright? Yeah. Is it just me getting excited about it?
Yeah. When Hugh Baird was designing
the rout of the canal back in 1813, it wasn't supposed to go this way. But a rich local landowner called William Forbes, he didn't want the canal running by his property, he didn't want to be laid there sunning himself
and boaters looking down on him from the canal. Snob! In fact he kicked up such a stink,
that they had to reroute the canal. But the only other way for it,
to go was through Prospect Hill, which meant digging this tunnel. So they got a load of navvies in
and they dug the tunnel through. You didn't know that did you? Well yeah, I knew they dug the tunnel through. [Laughs] Now I like tunnels and all the tunnels have got
various stories about ghosts and haunted this and headless
that headless stuff headless that. [Laughs] Headless that. Headless that. and most of them are all
complete bull poop to be honest. Bull Poop! Because we'll admit,
we don't believe in ghosts This one's different. Yeah! 200 years ago two blokes called
William Burke and William Hare, came over to Scotland
from Ireland looking for work. They ended up joining the navvies,
digging deep under Prospect Hill, blasting their way through
the rock to create falkirk tunnel. [Spooky music playing] When it was finished the
pair moved over to Edinburgh, where William Hare married Margaret Laird and she owned a lodging house in the city. Back then times were tough but when one of the
lodging guests died innocently from heart failure, the pair sold his body to a local anatomy teacher. He was going to use it for dissection
in anatomy lectures at the university and the doctor paid them £7 for the body, which in today's money is about £4.500 [Old cash register sound effect] Burke and Hare realised
they were onto a good thing and over the next few months, they
went on to lure 16 people to the lodgings, murdered them and sold
their bodies on to Dr. Knox. When they were finally caught,
Hare escaped punishment by striking a deal with the court and giving
evidence against William Burke and on Christmas Day in 1829,
Burke was found guilty. The judge ordered that he'd be hanged and
his body publicly dissected and anatomized, just like his victims had been. His skeleton is still on display at the
Anatomical Museum at the University of Edinburgh. The whole dark legend bought a rhyme. Up close and down the stair, In the house with Burke and Hare, Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief. And Knox the boy, that buys the beef. [Spooky music playing] Falkirk Tunnel, absolutely amazing. Real horror stories, real villains, it's huge, it's cavernous and where did that square shape come from? [Shaun] I have no idea. [Colin] I mean that is like dedicated navvies isn't it, building it in like that perfect square shape. It's just amazing i bet there were like loads
of chafed knuckles and broken fingernails [Laughs] at the end of the day there. I mean, you've got to give it
to the navvies back in the day, because they were using primitive tools and
explosives to blow the way through these hills. So to get a tunnel of that size
and that shape is just amazing. [Music playing] Even though we're on one of the
quietest stretches of canal in the UK, it looks like we're still a crash magnet. The poor guy driving this hire boat, panicked
when he saw was coming across the aqueduct and he threw his throttling to full
speed forward instead of reverse. We'd already stopped our boat, but it
wasn't enough time to avoid them hitting us at some speed almost tipping the camera over. These things happen you
know and nobody got hurt, there wasn't any damage, we gave them
a smile and told them to have a good day. I think they were a bit embarrassed though. [Music playing] For the last few days we've had a, a reasonably mild south westerly, Yes. bit gusty at times, but mild, like double digit celsius. Errr, from now to over the next 24 hours, that's
going to change to a northerly gale. [Laughs] The, what's the feel like
temperature, what's it called? Wind chill. The wind chill is apparently
going to be about freezing point, so that's going to be a
shock to the system tomorrow and we've got a big day tomorrow,
well next week for you, tomorrow for us. We are about halfway between
Edinburgh and Glasgow. [Shaun] In Falkirk. [Colin] and we're moored just above the staircase locks at Falkirk, locks 1 and 2. There you go. After the locks there's a sharp starboard turn and we go through a very psychedelic
tunnel, you're going to love that. I like that, you're good really going to like that and then it's the Falkirk Wheel. Yeah! How many times have people
commented on our vlog saying, you need to do the Falk. . . [In a high pitched moaning voice]
You need to do the Falkirk Wheel. [Laughs] Like that? Yeah, just like that. [Laughs] So then we're going to do the
Falkirk Wheel, it is getting very blowy isn't it. Yes. But that's for next week,
we hope you've enjoyed this vlog. If you have and you're not already,
please subscribe to the channel, hit the thumbs up button
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every time we release a new vlog. If you hit the link above Shaun's head or in the video description, you can help support the channel,
which is very much appreciated, I tell you. What are we having for tea? Something like Auntie Barbara. [Laughs] Enchiladas Sounds like Auntie Barbara though doesn't it. [Laughing] I think it does anyway, no? No. Alright, see you next week bye Ta-ra! [Music playing] You've got something on your nose. that was a favorite place of the Stuart Kings, who's Stuart King, Shaun's supposed to ask. Back in a second. There's the canal society, do trip boats and [Burps] I just burped then so I'll do it again. Hold that, I need to go pee. Say that again [Laughs] [Laughs] and that's why they're like they are,
I've completely forgotten where I'm going. I'm ready, I'm ready. Shaun's mustard stained jacket, Yes! because the start of putting
mustard in squirty bottles, rather than spreading it or dipping it. But it got me thinking, because
you're obviously a squirter because he got it all over his jacket and it got me thinking like about celebrities. So we're going to play Dipper or Squirter, [Laughing]
I'm going to read some names out and you tell me, we've got to guess
whether they're dippers or squirters. No, this is naughty. Dame Judy Dench? A dipper. She's definitely a dipper isn't she. Prince William. [Laughing and sniggering] I think Prince William's a dipper to be honest. Josh O'Connor. Definitely a squirter. [Laughs] Fiona Bruce. Dip. she's a dipper, dipper. You're really uncomfortable aren't you? [Music playing]
