On a drizzly morning I set off first to visit the Kelpies. First I pass Falkirk Football Club and then through Helix Park. The Helix is a perfect example of what is wrong with modern park design - cluttered with mismatched street furniture, uninspiring sculpture and boring planting. It's designed around a series of circles which probably look great on plan but which it is impossible to relate to, or even comprehend, when actually in the park. The wetland section is good though and maybe it will get better when the planting has matured.
Then to the Kelpies which mark the beginning of a new extension to the Forth and Clyde Canal. These 100ft high sculptures by Andy Scott where opened in April 2014 and are rather impressive.
Leaving the Kelpies I follow the canal heading east. Resting next to the site of the old Rosebank Whiskey Distillery (which closed in 2002) a tipsy couple of lads wander past...at 9.30 in the morning.
After some more towpath I arrive at the Falkirk Wheel.
This magnificent piece of engineering connects the Forth and Clyde and the Union canals. It fully rotates, lifting boats 79 foot into the air and is the only rotating boat lift in the world. Watching it in action is very satisfying.
I leave the wheel and canal, heading into a small patch of woods which takes me to the Antonine Wall. This Roman wall is less famous than Hadrian's Wall to the south, probably because not much of it exists anymore. I walk past some impressive lumps and bumps which are the remains of a section of wall and a Roman fort.
Then back onto the canal for the rest of the day to take me to the outskirts of Kilsyth.
Kilsyth town centre itself is pretty deserted, especially as it's a Saturday night. There are a couple of great modern churches though.
I walk up the hill to where I'm camping, for free, in the garden of a bed and breakfast. I lie in the bivy watching the clouds of midges and the perseid meteor shower above.
