Rosebank by Bus – A Lowland Distillery and the Falkirk Wheel
A few hours, from Rosebank Distillery to the Falkirk Wheel.
The route
Rosebank, the Lowland distillery founded in 1840 on the western edge of Falkirk, is making whisky again in its restored red-brick buildings beside the Forth and Clyde Canal, with copies of its old stills in a glass-fronted still room.
The 1 bus from Denny stops at its door, so nobody has to drive, and a few minutes further west it drops you a short walk from the Falkirk Wheel for lunch beside the basin. It's an easy half day for whisky lovers who would rather leave the car at home.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book the Rosebank Distillery tour
Book a Rosebank Distillery tour on its own website for a Monday or a Wednesday to Saturday, choosing one that ends by about 2pm so there is time to reach the Falkirk Wheel's café for lunch.
The day
Camelon
It's a half day without the car: a tour of a working distillery, a short bus ride west, then lunch beside the Falkirk Wheel's basin.
About four and a half hours
Rosebank Distillery
An attraction
From Denny, the 1 bus leaves the stop opposite the Oak Hotel at 7 and 37 minutes past the hour through the day, Monday to Saturday, and takes about half an hour to the stop at Rosebank Distillery on Camelon Road. From Stirling, the 38 from the bus station calls at the same stop. Rosebank was founded in 1840 beside the Forth and Clyde Canal, shut in 1993, and was bought and restored by Ian Macleod Distillers. The old mill is still used to make the whisky, the 108-foot chimney has been repaired, and exact copies of the original stills stand in a glass-fronted still room you can see from the front of the building. It usually opens Monday and Wednesday to Saturday, 10.30am to 6pm. Tours are booked on its own website: choose one that ends by about 2pm, to leave time for lunch at the Wheel, and check there what each tour includes and whether children can come. The entrance and toilets are step-free.
6 min by bus, 13 min on foot
The Falkirk Wheel
An attraction
It's a 6-minute ride on the 1 to the stop before the Three Bridges roundabout, then 13 minutes' walk by Millennium Wheel Drive and the path to the basin. The bus leaves from across the road from the distillery at 23 and 53 minutes past the hour. The Falkirk Wheel is the world's only rotating boat lift, opened in 2002 to carry boats 35 metres between the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Union Canal. It took the place of a flight of 11 locks that were a day's hard work to pass. Stand by the basin when a trip boat sails into one of its gondolas and the whole wheel turns slowly through the air, on about the power it takes to boil eight kettles. The site is level all the way round, and dogs on leads are welcome.
The café at the Falkirk Wheel
Lunch
It's a minute's walk to the café in the glass-domed visitor centre, for soup, sandwiches and home baking with the Wheel outside the window. It opens every day from 10am; get there by 3pm to be sure of food. It's step-free, with an accessible toilet; only assistance dogs go inside, but other dogs can sit at the visitor centre's high tables. In summer, outdoor stalls add pizza and toasties. The walk back to the bus stop takes a quarter of an hour, and the 1 home to Denny leaves it at 29 and 59 minutes past the hour until 5.59pm, Monday to Saturday.
If it rains
The tour and lunch are both under a roof; only the bus stops and the walk between the stop and the Wheel are out in the weather.
Photographs by Joe Degabriele and Juan José Díez via Google