Edinburgh Canal Society

The Edinburgh Canal Society is a charitable canal society on the Union Canal in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Society's main base is Ashley Terrace Boathouse at Lockhart Bridge, near Harrison Park in the Polwarth area of Edinburgh.

The society was founded in 1985 and is a founder member of the Scottish Inland Waterways Association.

In partnership with the Forth Canoe Club, the Linlithgow Union Canal Society, the Bridge 19-40 Canal Society, the Seagull Trust and other canal societies on the Scottish Lowland Canals, Edinburgh Canal Society campaigned for many years to have the Union Canal rebuilt, refurbished and re-opened.

The culmination of the campaign was the joining of the Union Canal and the Forth & Clyde Canal by way of the Falkirk Wheel. Edinburgh Canal Society was one of the official Millennium Link Project Partners.

The society owns a wooden historical launch with Kelvin engines; the vessel had sunk in the early 1990s in Fisherrow harbour at Musselburgh after a violent storm. A society member happened to be passing just as the disposal lorry arrived, and the vessel was rescued. In 1999, she was removed to Mackay's boatyard in Arbroath, with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The same boatyard had earlier restored Robert Scott's RRS Discovery in Dundee. Obtaining the correct Kelvin engine at first seemed impossible, but by another chance encounter, a Kelvin E2 engine was obtained from a warehouse in Kuwait.

...
Wikipedia