Remember when: Time spent in disuse is now just water under the bridge for the Union Canal

Crowds of onlookers are expected to line its banks as an eye-catching flotilla makes its way from Edinburgh to Linlithgow today, before completing the final stretch of the 32-mile route to Falkirk tomorrow.

For the hundreds of families, dog walkers, joggers, cyclists and water enthusiasts who visit the Union Canal every day, it is a welcome escape from the bustle of city life; a chance to enjoy, what feels like, a small piece of the countryside within the Capital.

But there was a time when the canal was very much a no-go zone, having fallen into disuse by the 1960s.

Filled with dumped and rotting rubbish, there were even campaigns for the historic 1822 waterway to be closed down and drained.

A one-and-a-quarter mile section at Wester Hailes was indeed closed in the 1970s, a relief to worried mothers who believed the murky waters posed a risk to children playing near its banks.

The canal had originally opened as a trade link, but its profitability was heavily affected by the opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in 1842.

However, in 2000, springing back to life, the canal was rejuvenated by the Millennium Link Project, and the creation of homes and businesses dotted along its waters.