The Southbank Basin and the Fourth and Clyde Canal, Kirkintilloch

An archaeological investigation of the eighteenth-century double basin, the basin mouth where it joined the Forth and Clyde Canal and the nineteenth-century slipway and slipway finger were conducted at Southbank, Kirkintilloch. The canal is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and additions, repairs and alterations to features beside it as part of the new development, were also monitored.The background to the development and use of the basin was also investigated, as various industries had targeted the basin for its convenient access to the canal and outlets to the west and east. The dressed walls of the basin survived up to 2 m in height when revealed from beneath 1960s infill, although their upper courses were missing. Stop log channels in the walls for stop planks across the passage between the two halves of the basin were also preserved. The basin mouth survived to its full height of nearly 5 m, its walls resting on a foundation of concrete and pebbles lying directly on the subsoil. It also had stop log channels for taking stop planks to divide the waters of the basin from those of the canal. Evidence survived that the slipway was a much later addition, as it was built for the construction of 'puffers'. The softwood timbers of the slipway ramp for the launching and repairing of boats survived and were noted to be covered in bitumen. The investigations of the slipway finger revealed that it originally had a sandstone bollard for mooring which was replaced in metal when the surface of the finger was renewed. The end of the finger was also extended and the whole resurfaced before its general demise in the 1960s.