Paddleboarding-Falkirk Tunnels

The Body Snatchers Tunnel: Falkirk, Stirlingshire

Paddle into Falkirk Tunnel and the daylight disappears behind you for 630 metres, leaving only dripping rock, stalactites hanging overhead and the amplified plink and splash of water in a passage blasted through solid limestone two centuries ago. Two of the navvies who worked here were William Burke and William Hare, later notorious for murdering people and selling their bodies for dissection. Paddle beyond the bridge to find the Laughin’ and Greetin’ Bridge, where a smiling stone face looks towards the easy stretch of canal eastwards and a miserable one towards the tunnel and eleven locks whose construction bankrupted the contractor. Paddlers tell of unexplained footsteps, voices and shadowy workmen in the tunnel – but with body-snatching Burke and Hare in its real history, dripping stone walls all around you it hardly needs ghosts to feel haunted

Distance 2.5km to bridges and back, 9km if combined with trip to Falkirk Wheel

Route map

Access restrictions No licence required, but please register your trip with Scottish Canals

OS map OS Explorer 349 – Falkirk, Cumbernauld & Livingston

Start point Canalside adjacent to Slamannan Road Car Park

Parking Slamannan Road Car Park, Falkirk, FK1 5PW (near Falkirk High Station). Grid ref. NS881 790; what3words slurping.actor.plenty.

Special points Always wear plenty of hi viz clothing and carry torches/whistles to ensure other water users can see and hear you whilst in the tunnels. If paddling to the Falkirk tunnel, turn right at Slamannan Road CP and head west along the canal, over the Greenbank Road aqueduct. You have one lock to portage on your RHS before you turn sharp right, paddle through Roughcastle Tunnel, enter the top lock compound and exit RHS to visit the Wheel and its café.

Paddleboarding Falkirk Tunnels and Falkirk Wheel

Paddleboarding South West