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The sun was poking its head through some fluffy clouds as we passed Edinburgh to our port side. The old railroad bridge was a dizzying display of beams spanning the entrance to the Firth and our final dock at Rosyth, yet the newer suspension bridge seemed a bit out of place when compared with the old lighthouses and green pastures along the distant shore.

Rosyth, like Tilbury, is an old harbor town. It is to the north-west of Edinburgh with ferries running to mainland of Europe. We docked along the cay and were ready to go ashore.
Our first encounter was a lady bag piper at the cruise ship office; from there we had to find our guide and tour bus.

I had made arrangements for a private tour with a local company to see the Stirling Castle and Falkirk Wheel. We had been to Edinburgh before and wanted to see something different. There were six others on the cruise who wanted to do the same thing. They were the same people who would be our companions on a few other outings. Dave had made plans for the Faroe Islands and Iceland, I did the two in Scotland. Eight of us boarded a bus large enough for 16 and had a fun tour guide/driver who took us to the castle first.

The castle sits on a prominent hill with a view in all directions. Like some other castles in the UK, Stirling was the scene of a major battle between the English and Scottish troops. It was around 1110 that first mention was made of this edifice and since that time many additions and modifications were created. Its history is long and often violent, and as a result of the 'War of Independence', the Scottish people revere this site. The most honored of their heroes is William Wallace who defeated the British at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. See link _

We arrived early and had to wait a few minutes before the castle opened for tourists. Then we were on our own to explore. Here are a few pictures. For details see the link above.

From the castle it was important to visit the Wallace Monument, the place where part of the battle took place seven centuries ago. High on a hill top is a tower with a stairway to the top. There are some displays on the way and the view from above is great. Ed and I were the only two who decided to do this climb. Sir William Wallace must have been a giant of a man, because his sword on display was 5.5 feet long. He apparently wore it on his back in a small sheath for ready access.

Now it was on to a marvel of modern engineering, the Falkirk Wheel. This whole area is laced with canals some of which date back to the Roman days. There are numerous locks to raise vessels to different levels as the terrain undulates. A ridge separates two canals near the town of Falkirk. One leads to Edinburgh, the other to Glasgow. However, the difference in the water level is about 79 feet. Previously it had taken eleven locks to elevate boats this much.
In 2002 a radical design provided a way to lift boats this high without much power consumption. A large wheel rotates with two docks containing water and the boat(s). It can have one or two vessels, one going up and the other coming down. The whole premise is that the weight of the water and hardware balances out on both sides. According to good old Archimedes, the weight of a vessel floating in water is the same as the water that has been displaced. So, as long as the boats float in the 'wet' dock, the system is balanced.

After we had some light lunch, we boarded one of the boats that goes up on the wheel. As you can see in the picture above, the boat enters the semi-circular port into the 'wet' dock. Then two sets of doors close the ends and water is pumped out of the narrow space in between, and the wheel is ready to be rotated.
It was a bit eerie to think what would happen if one of the doors were to fail in midair.

At the top, the other end opened up and the boat proceeded through the canal and tunnel to the Union Canal. This is where we turned around and took the wheel back down. The whole system is a big tourist attraction, but we noticed that commercial and pleasure boats also use the wheel.

On the way back to the ship, we made a brief stop at the Dunfermline Abbey. This is the burial place of King Robert the Bruce who was born in 1274. He is remembered in Scotland as a national hero, similar to George Washington in the US. The abbey grounds are full of grave stones and the original church ruins are off to the left as we entered by a back stairway.
The ladies were anxious to get back, so we had to cut our visit short. It would have been interesting to see the inside and learn a bit more about its history. The town itself also looked attractive.
Our tour guide drove through some beautiful neighborhoods along the river and brought us back to the dock with time to spare.

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