Monkland Canal

The Monkland Canal once ran for 12 miles (19 km) from Woodhall to Glasgow having been developed to serve the coal mines of North Lanarkshire. City magnates and tobacco barons in Glasgow had decided to build a canal to take advantage of the extensive coalfields of Monklands and bring much needed cheap coal to the city. James Watt, the famous engineer and inventor, was commissioned to build the Canal. Work began at Sheepford, Coatbridge, in 1770 but after a couple of years money ran out and the whole project was almost abandoned.

Progress only really came in the late 1780’s when Andrew Stirling, a Monklands landowner and entrepreneur, took control of the Canal. He struck a deal with Forth and Clyde Navigation to join the two canals together in Glasgow and to extend the Monkland Canal eastwards to North Calder Water and Calderbank. The Glasgow terminus was at the Monkland basin, close to Glasgow Cathedral. From there it linked was Port Dundas with the Glasgow branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal.

In the 1790’s the Canal was extended eastwards, a set of locks was built and it was one of only two lock systems on the whole of the Canal. Sheepford Locks were built as part of the extension to Calderbank. The two locks were separated by a basin and raised the canal some 20 feet. This was one of only two lock systems on the whole of the Canal. At the same time a road bridge was built over the Canal to carry Locks Street.

The Monkland Canal took around 24 years to complete and cost £120,000.

Profit

In the first half of the 19th Century the Monkland Canal was the most profitable in Scotland and had a
strategic role in the industrial development of Glasgow. Between 1850 and 1887, barges were raised and lowered along a steam-driven inclined plane at Blackhill. This was later replaced by a series of locks.

The Canal competed successfully with the new railway companies well in to the nineteenth century - the traffic on the Canal reached a peak in 1850’s and 60’s, transporting over 1 million tonnes of coal and iron a year. Passenger boats operated from below Sheepford Locks to Blackhill where passengers were obliged to walk to another boat to complete the journey to Townhead. The Canal merged with the Forth & Clyde in 1867, when the Caledonian Railway Company took over both waterways.

By the 1920’s however traffic on the Canal had reduced to just 30,000 tonnes a year. In the 1940’s the Canal was abandoned and in the 1960’s the Canal was mostly filled in and covered by the M8. The canal was piped as it continues to supply water to the Forth and Clyde canal. The route of canal provided a useful corridor for the M8 motorway to enter the city. Today the canal is best seen in Drumpellier Country Park in Coatbridge.

Route

The canal route (using todays placenames) was from Calderbank, through Faskine, Palacecraig, Coatdyke (Sheepford) near the B&Q, Coatbank Way, South Circular Road, crossing under the road to run parallel with Main Street and King Street, through Drumpelier, Cuilhill to Easterhouse, Ruchazie, Riddrie, Blackhill, Blochairn and on to Townhead. The M8 motorway was built on the canal route from near Easterhouse to Townhead.