Falkirk Wheel

The Forth and Clyde Canal (built 1768 to 1790) and the Union Canal (built 1818 to 1822) were once linked by a flight of 11 locks at Camelon, near Falkirk, that carried the former 112 feet up to the latter. These fell into disuse in 1933. When the Millennium Link project set out to restore the two canals and rejoin the Clyde and the Forth, a task achieved in just three years between 1999 and 2001, a new means of connecting them was required.

The Falkirk Wheel, built 2000 to 2002, was the solution. The world's first rotating boat lift, the wheel forms part of a £20m complex comprising a 551 feet long tunnel that carries the Union Canal under the Antonine Wall, a 341 feet long aqueduct that brings this higher canal to the wheel, and the lift down to a large basin that itself gives onto the Forth and Clyde Canal. The site is just under two miles from the original locks, and was previously home to a redundant tar works.

The wheel itself is 115 tall and 89 feet long, and bridges 82 vertical feet between the two canals. Designed by Nicoll Russell Studios, of Dundee, it employs two interlinked mechanisms that serve to keep level the rotating gondolas, and the water and boats within them, whilst using the bare minimum of power. Just 1.5kW, about that needed to boil six kettles of water, is required to turn the wheel through 180 degrees, yet the transition takes just five minutes.

The first mechanism is the ten hydraulic motors that drive the axle, 13 feet in diameter, and thereby a central cog, 26' 3" in diameter, fixed to both the axle and the end support of the aqueduct. As the axle turns, smaller rotating cogs, either side of the central cog, transfer the drive to cogs mounted inside of the propeller-like arms of the wheel, one each side. These outer cogs rotate at the same speed as the central one, being the same size as this, but in the opposite direction to the axle and the wheel as a whole.

The second mechanism, a series of bogie wheels at each end of the 82 feet long gondolas, run on curved rails mounted within the propeller arms. Gravity largely enables this second mechanism alone to keep the gondolas horizontal, but wheel friction and sudden displacements within the gondolas could jolt these out of alignment. The non-powered mechanism of five cogs keeps everything safely aligned.

From boat entry to boat departure, the trip through the lift takes just 15 minutes. Once boats have entered/departed the gondolas, paired steel gates move from a prone position to an upright one, closing off the gondolas, the aqueduct at the top, and the basin at the bottom. Rubber seals spring out along the sides and bottoms of the paired gates and the water between these is pumped out. When the half turn is completed, water is pumped back into the space between the paired gates, which then flap downwards to enable boats to depart/enter the lift.

The speed, elegance and efficiency of the wheel belie its scale. The complete structure weighs in at 1,772 tons, of which 98 tons is in the form of the two gondolas, and 492 tons in the form of the carried water and boats. In accord with Archimedes' Principle, boats entering the gondolas displace their own weight in water, although a system of sensors, valves and bypass pipes maintain the water levels in the aqueduct and basin, so as to keep those in the gondolas consistent. There's a maximum variation in water height between the paired gondolas of three inches.

The steel fabrication was undertaken by Butterley Engineering, of Ripley. The structure is bolted together, not welded, to give it greater strength. 15,000 bolts were driven through 45,000 holes, the punched-out weight of which was just under seven tons. A joint venture between Morrison Construction, of Scotland, and Bachy Soletanche, of Ormskirk, acted as main contractor. The wheel itself, fabricated offsite, was erected in just six days.

Arup Consultants and Tony Gee and Partners acted as civil engineers. Much clever materials thinking went into the engineering. The elegant hoops that support the aqueduct, for instance, are of steel-reinforced concrete up to the point that carries the weight of the trough, but of GRP (glassed-reinforced plastic) above that. The canal engineers and navvies of old would be proud.

Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest

Construction of what was originally called the Palace of the Republic began in 1983, the cornerstone laid on 25 June 1984. Romanian Communist Party leader Ceaușescu had seen the monumental architecture of North Korea on a visit to fellow dictator Kim Il-sung, and had decided that his palace would rival anything else in its scale and opulence. 2.7 square miles of Bucharest, home to monasteries, a hospital, 37 factories and workshops, and 40,000 people, were demolished to make way for this vision.

With 3,930,000 square feet of floor space, the palace is the third largest administrative building in the world, after The Pentagon (Virginia, USA) and the Long'ao Building (Jinan city, China). At over 90 million cubic feet, it is the third most voluminous building in the world, after the Rocket Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, USA, and the pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, in Mexico. The palace is the heaviest building in the world, weighing in at over four million tons, and as a consequence sinks about a quarter of an inch per year.

Between 20,000 and 100,000 people, working 24 hours a day, in three shifts, were forced to undertake the construction. Thousands died. Over 700 architects, under chief architect Anca Petrescu, were engaged in the work, but had a largely technical role, with the megalomaniac Ceaușescus interfering at every stage.

885 feet wide, 790 feet front to back, the building stands 276 feet tall. It has a footprint of over 710,000 square feet. Of twelve above-ground storeys, in three registers, plus eight underground levels, the palace contains over 1,100 rooms, of which just 400 or so are in use. Although the exterior was completed in 1997, hundreds of rooms remain unfinished.

Some of the principal rooms and halls of the first register, the most opulent, can be visited by the public. In this register alone there are about 20 rooms of 2,000 to 7,500 square feet; three of 10,000 to 15,000 square feet; two of over 21,000 square feet (Union Hall, photo above, boasts over 23,000 square feet); two vast meeting rooms, seating 850 and 1,200 respectively; and the two official apartments intended, one suite each, for Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu.

The construction material quantities are gargantuan: 35 million cubic feet of marble, 550,000 tons of cement, two million tons of sand, 1,000 tons of basalt, 700,000 tons of steel, 3,500 tons of crystal, seven million cubic feet of glass, 32 million cubic feet of wood, 2.3 million square feet of carpet. There are 4,500 chandeliers, of an intended 11,000.

And the materials used are of the highest quality, largely from Romania: pink and white Rușchița marble, red and black Moneasa marble; sweet cherry, walnut, mahogany and oak. Yet the quality of the work leaves much to be desired. Despite the obsessive reworking required by the Ceaușescus - Elena had the monumental paired stairs built three times over - the joints and junctions are poorly executed, the chandeliers are missing drops, the carpets are twisted.

The whole place has an air of pointless extravagance. It was known by Romanians, most of whom were living in a peasant economy, as the Madman's House. And mad it is. The Rosetti Room, built as a performance hall, seating 850 - photo above - lacks a backstage area and has a tiny stage, such that it's never been used for the presentation of a play.

Since the 1989 revolution that deposed Ceaușescu, when the building was renamed the Palace of the People, Romania has struggled to find uses for a structure that, on the one hand, is a ridiculous folly, yet, on the other, was built at great cost, both financial and human, and might as well be pressed into use. Now called the Palace of the Parliament, it presently houses the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, an international conference centre, the Constitutional Court, and the Legislative Council, with space to spare.

Foel Ortho

Foel translates from the Welsh as bald, or bare, hill. But the hillside at Foel Ortho is anything but bald.

In a ruinous state at that time, the farmhouse was discovered in 1967 by Jenny and Eddie Matthews.

The steep acre of ground, between Penybontfawr and Lake Vyrnwy, has over the decades been graced with a series of DIY follies.

With winding and stepped paths between fake rocks, stone-retained terraces, a mock castle, towers linked by a bridge, buttressed walls, and a giant chess set, the place is like nothing so much as a miniature Portmeirion.

Penang - Kek Lok Si

Covering about 30 acres, and home to millions of representations of Buddha, Kek Lok Si is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.

Built in the main between 1890 and 1905, the temple is still very much under construction. One of the chief patrons was Cheong Fatt Tze, he of Penang's Blue Mansion.

It is a pilgrimage destination for Buddhists from across South East Asia. Two monumental structures provide the key attractions.

The first is the Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas - known also as the Pagoda of Rama VI, the king of Thailand who laid the foundation stone - completed in 1930. 98 feet tall, this houses 10,000 bronze and alabaster statues of Buddha.

The second is the 99 feet tall bronze statue of Kuan Yin, the Taoist goddess of mercy, the tallest in the world, still undergoing the decorative process.

Nearby is a 200 foot long pavilion of three tiers, completed in 2009. Both the latter can be reached by way of a funicular railway from lower tiers of the temple complex.

The temple's eclectic mix of Mahayana (complete enlightenment) Buddhism, Theravada (conservative) Buddhism, and traditional Chinese Taoism - Kek Lok Si Temple translates as Heavenly Temple, which covers all the ground - explains its widespread appeal.

The next planned development is a temple for the reception of Buddha relics. The fund-raising stalls of tat rather belie the Buddhist principle of not holding.

Brogyntyn - Secret Tunnel

The tunnel beneath Castell Brogyntyn is well known, but the parkland boasts a second, the location of which is kept secret by those in the know, to protect the four lesser horseshoe bats that live within.

(Lesser horseshoes are restricted to Wales, the West Midlands, and the south-west of England. There are about 50,000 individuals in the UK. Their worldwide International Union for Conservation of Nature classification is Vulnerable, i.e. at high risk of extinction.)

The tunnel has Y-shaped adit-like entrances at both ends. It is constructed from the local rock, stacked so as to create a deliberately rustic appearance.

About ten or so yards long, including the splayed entrances, the tunnel curves gently underground, is broadly S-form in plan.

Brogyntyn - Ozymandian Remnants

The main entrance to the park was by way of a triumphal arch on Mount Road, built 1815 to a design by Benjamin Gummow, of Ruabon, also responsible for Brogyntyn Hall's portico. Presumably a celebration of the defeat of Napoleon.

Grade II listed, the archway has two square projections, highly bijou accommodation for the lodge-keeper.

Wrought iron railings connect the arch to a pedestrian entrance to the south. Large sections of the gateway lie nearby (below).

West of the drive that once ran from the gateway to the Hall, and hidden within a plantation of trees, are the few remains of a semi-circular temple, from which there were views of Oswestry hill-fort.

The temple was built of rendered brickwork, with fluted pilasters and a dentilled pediment in stone. Mere fragments of each remain.

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Brogyntyn - Castell

Castell Brogyntyn is a univallate 'hill fort', supposedly of the Iron Age, and scheduled accordingly as an ancient monument.

It is, however, decidedly symmetrical, and was likely rescarped, perhaps in the 1760s. The very flat interior is understood to have been home, in that period, to a bowling green.

A stone-lined tunnel, about 70 yards long, passes underneath the 'castle', curved such that one cannot see from one end to the other.

Brogyntyn - Swiss Cottage

The two lakes of Brogyntyn were formed by 1800, by damming the Mill Dingle. A rustic bridge once crossed the head of the dam between them. The extant bridge is a modern replacement.

The lakes were linked by a 30 foot high waterfall, formed of Pulhamite, an anthropic rock. There were two types of this. One was a stone-coloured terracotta, for moulding garden and architectural ornaments such as fountains and balustrades. The other, employed here, was a render, of hydraulic lime, sand and other aggregates, over a masonry former, used for constructing rockeries and the like.

A boathouse that once stood at the south end of the upper pool has gone, but Brogyntyn Cottage, to the west of the same pool, adjoining Whit(e)well Lane, remains.

Known as Swiss Cottage, this was built in the early nineteenth century, in the Gothick style. The three-sided verandah is framed by rustic columns and 'capitals', and sports walls studded with quartz nodules.

































There are outbuildings cut into the slope of the land (below). Although Grade II listed (1987), the cottage is ruinous. The stained glass has gone.

The condition of the fine rococo interior is unknown. This included ogee windows and inset bookcases, which once housed false books, the titles of which alluded to the romantically concealed nature of the cottage.

Across the lane is a pumping house, belonging to the estate, still supplying water to 13 nearby properties.