Monkland Canal - Expansion Plans

Expansion Plans

Although the Townhead basin served much heavy industry in that quarter of Glasgow, progressive improvements to the navigability of the River Clyde meant that 100 tonne (110 short ton) ships, and by the early years of the nineteenth century 400 tonne (440 short ton) ships, could reach the Broomielaw quays. The conveyance of coal, iron ore and machinery from the canal to the quays resulted in a huge and inconvenient cartage traffic through the city streets; this "added a cost equivalent to ten miles carriage on a railway", and of course involved a trans-shipment. The engineer Rennie designed a canal link from the Monkland Canal to the Clyde in 1797, but it involved 160 feet (49 m) vertical interval of lockage and was impossibly expensive; Stevenson prepared a similar scheme later but it too foundered. The Canal Company bought land for a connecting railway for the purpose in 1824, but that scheme also came to nothing.

In order to better serve the ironworks, four branches were constructed at the upper end of the canal. The branches to Calder Ironworks and Gartsherrie Ironworks were both about a mile (1.6 km) long, while those to Langloan Ironworks and Dundyvan Ironworks were about 0.25 miles (0.4 km) long.