Cache placed with kind permission of Scottish Canals. The Monkland Canal was a twelve and a quarter mile long canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow. The principal engineer on the construction project was James Watt, and in 1771 following long and difficult contruction process the first section of the canal was opened. The canal was opened in sections, and was fully operational by 1774.
The work in building the canal was hard and very dangerous, Each section was dug out by hand by migrant labourers called 'Navvies' (short for navigators). The Navvies moved tons of soil and rock each day, using only pick axes and shovels. Once each section was completed, and before flooding it, they would pack the bottom and sides with clay in order to make the channel watertight. The clay on each side was packed into place by hand, but to ensure the base was watertight, they would drive sheep and cattle along the channel, to pack the clay into place.
As the use of the Monklands Canal grew, it was later linked to the Forth and Clyde Canal, giving the waterway additional business potential.
This remaining section of the canal stretches approximately one and a half miles from Blairhill to the outskirts of Bargeddie. The canal is now very popular with walkers, cyclists and fishermen, and attracts a wide variety of wildlife and wildfowl