Linlithgow and Falkirk – A Palace, the Kelpies and the Wheel
A day by car, from Edinburgh and back.
The route
Linlithgow and Falkirk sit about eight miles apart on the road west from Edinburgh.
Linlithgow is a small royal town where the Stewart kings built a palace above a loch, and where Mary Queen of Scots was born. Falkirk is a canal town that has remade itself in steel, first with a wheel that lifts boats between two canals, then with a pair of horses' heads 30 metres high. This is a day from Edinburgh and back that takes in both, old stone before lunch and new engineering after it. A car is the way to do it: the three places are miles apart, and a tour and a boat are booked to the hour. Allow about ten hours from door to door, with about two and a half of them driving, and more in rush-hour traffic.
Before you go
This day works from April to September, on summer opening hours: book a Linlithgow Palace ticket online for the opening time, 9.30am.
Book the Falkirk Wheel's boat trip on Scottish Canals' site first, for one of the last two sailings on its summer list.
Book the 1.30pm Kelpies Tour at the Helix, which it lists daily from April to October: it is the one tour that fits this day, ending at least an hour before your boat at the Falkirk Wheel leaves.
The day
Linlithgow and Falkirk
The morning is Linlithgow's and the afternoon Falkirk's. Set off from Edinburgh at about a quarter past eight, through the morning traffic, to reach the palace as it opens for the day.
2 hr 28 min at the wheelAbout 61 miles by carAbout 2 miles on foot
Linlithgow Palace
It's 45 minutes' drive from Edinburgh by the M8 and the M9, nearer an hour in the morning traffic. Park in the Vennel car park beside the Cross, the town's square, and walk up the Kirkgate. Mary Queen of Scots was born in this palace of the Stewart kings. It stands roofless now, with James V's fountain in the courtyard and a view over the loch from Queen Margaret's Bower. It opens at 9.30am from April to September and at 10am in winter. Allow an hour and a quarter.
About 1 min on foot
St Michael's Parish Church
The church is a minute's walk from the palace's door. St Michael's was consecrated in 1242 and largely rebuilt after a great fire in 1424, and its own history has Mary Queen of Scots baptised here. The modern Crown of Thorns on its tower went up in 1964 and was re-clad in gold-coloured bronze alloy in 2024. A service or a wedding can close this working church to visitors. From April to September it opens to them at 10.30am, and at 11am on a Sunday. Allow fifteen minutes.
5 min on foot
Linlithgow Loch
It's a 5-minute walk across the Peel, the palace's park, to the water. Follow the shore path west round the Town Bay, look back to the palace, then walk up to the High Street: about 25 minutes. The full circuit of the loch takes about an hour, which leaves no time for the Kelpies Tour. Lunch is at the Four Marys, a pub across the High Street from the Cross (check its page for the day's hours), or more lightly at the Coffee Neuk on the Cross. Finish by about 12.50pm for the 1.30pm tour.
6 min on foot back to the car, then 19 min by car
The Kelpies
An attraction
Back at the car, it's 19 minutes' drive by the A803 and the M9, off at junction 5, to the Helix, the park where the Kelpies stand. Park in the Kelpies car park, the one nearest the sculptures. The sculptor Andy Scott's two steel horses' heads are 30 metres high and named for the water spirits of Scottish legend. Walking round them needs no ticket; the 25-minute tour goes inside with a guide. The 1.30pm tour, listed daily from April to October, is the one that fits this day. Allow an hour.
17 min by car
The Falkirk Wheel
An attraction
The Wheel's car park is 17 minutes' drive by the A9 and the B816. Scottish Canals calls this the world's only rotating boat lift. It joins the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Union Canal, about 35 metres above, in a five-minute half-turn. The boats sail to a summer list, with fewer in winter: check its page for your date. The trip takes about an hour, and Edinburgh is about 65 minutes' drive, more in the evening traffic: home about two and a half hours after the boat leaves.
If it rains
Rain spoils Linlithgow more than Falkirk. The palace is a roofless ruin and its courtyard is open to the sky, so take a coat, give the roofed church longer and leave the loch out. The Coffee Neuk, the tea room on the Cross, is somewhere to sit before lunch at the Four Marys. The afternoon holds as planned: the Kelpies Tour goes inside the sculptures, the Helix's visitor centre has a café, and the Wheel has a visitor centre and a café beside the basin.
Worth a detour
- Callendar House
Callendar House stands in Callendar Park in Falkirk, about 20 minutes' drive from Linlithgow and 10 from the Kelpies, so it adds about 10 minutes to the day's driving. The house's own page gives entry and parking as free. Inside are a museum, changing exhibitions, a Georgian kitchen and a tearoom, and a stretch of the Roman Antonine Wall crosses the park. It opens every day except Tuesday, from 10am to 5pm, with last admission at 4.30pm. An hour here will not fit between lunch and a booked tour, so it is for a day when the tours are sold out or not running, or when you have booked the boat alone.
