Edinburgh Canal Society - Boats and Boathouse

Boats and Boathouse

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.

A replica launch was built to meet the demand for more boat trips in both directions of the Union Canal, but this has been disposed of. The society also owns a fleet of wooden rowing boats for hire or charter.

The society's boathouse is one of a large range of iconic buildings and structures on the Scottish Lowland Canals. It was sited originally where the University Rowing Club's boathouse is at present. In 1987 the boathouse was dismantled and rebuilt in modified form at its present site, and it is constantly being refurbished, to the delight of amateur and professional photographers.

In 2008, the Boathouse and one of the rowing boats were a filming location for a creative documentary, commissioned in Ireland and named An Paísti Beo Bocht, about the life of Patrick MacGill, the Irish journalist, author and poet, nicknamed "The Navvy Poet" due to his earlier occupation as navvy on the canals.

In 2009, members of the Society and others were involved in the setting up of the first Edinburgh Canal Festival between Edinburgh Quay and the Society's boathouse at Harrison Park. This event is now an annual one and will take place again in 2012.