The canal snakes its way between the roads and houses of Wester Hailes, passing under numerous new road bridges of the standard Millennium Link design. Past Clovenstone Road Bridge (6B), it runs parallel to Hailesland Road, which has been realigned to make room, for a few hundred yards, with the Wester Hailes community complex on the other side. It passes under three bridges in quick succession, an old concrete footbridge which crossed Hailesland Road before the canal was reinstated, a new metal footbridge at a much lower level, and the new bridge 6C, Murrayburn Road. The road here used to cross the line of the canal at about water level, and some substantial earth moving was necessary to provide the required 9ft headroom at this bridge.

Past Murrayburn Road, the canal is out in the open, running along a pleasant grassy bank. New moorings have been provided on the offside with a path giving access to the Westside Plaza shopping and cinema complex, which is just to the south. Continuing west, the canal is crossed by the Wester Hailes Road dual carriageway on the large new concrete bridge 7 just opposite Westside Plaza, then continues west between school playing fields and houses to reach a new footbridge at Port Calder. The footbridge marks the junction of the original canal going onwards to Falkirk with the new canal through Wester Hailes, and just before it on the north side is the former entrance to the culvert that carried the water past the infilled stretch.

The canal swings north and is soon traversing quite different surroundings. Housing estates are quickly replaced by industrial estates, and new roads criss cross the landscape (and the canal). First is the A71 dual carriageway on its massive concrete bridge, then the original bridge that this replaced (8). Next is a very new bridge (number 8A), built in 1999 to give access to a new Ford showroom on the offside of the canal.

Round the corner, the canal bridges the outer city bypass road on a new concrete aqueduct at Hermiston. But it wasn't intended to be this way - the roadbuilders' original plan was for the bypass to cross the canal at water level! But the public and the canal enthusiasts fought the proposals, and thanks to that campaign we now have an aqueduct for the bypass road crossing and a proper bridge for the upgraded A71. What with the mile long infill that was then in place through Wester Hailes, a major road blockage here might just have been the final nail in the coffin of the eastern end of the canal, and it might never have been restored. Anyone who sails into Edinburgh along the canal should feel grateful to those early enthusiasts who had the vision and determination to prevent that from happening.

Even on this long reopened section there are signs that the Millennium Link project has made a difference. Stone arched bridge 9, next to the aqueduct, whose parapet wall collapsed into the canal a few years ago, has been restored to its original condition, and the towpath between Wester Hailes and Hermiston, previously one of the worst sections, has been upgraded. These are just some of the many small improvements that are being made to the lowland canal system at the moment - whilst all attention is focussed on the construction of new canal structures, many original features are also being repaired.

A bit further out, things start to seem more rural, but there's still the roar of traffic from the M8 to the north. The canal is crossed here by the last new bridge on this section - the Gogar Station Road bridge (numbered 10A) - a fairly attractive structure with an arch. A huge embankment has had to be built up on the north side to give the bridge navigational clearance over the canal - after the blockage-mad 1960s it's nice to see road builders going out of their way to avoid interfering with the canal. On the south bank is the house where John Scott Russell lived when he first observed the solitary wave phenomenon in the waves produced by passing barges.

A few miles further through more attractive countryside is Ratho. This little town is currently the centre of boating activity on the Union Canal. Boats of all shapes and sizes cruise from the Bridge Inn - restaurant barges, trip boats, and narrow boats run by a charity called the Seagull Trust, who run free cruises for disabled people. There is a long stretch of navigable canal around Ratho, giving a choice of routes, as this was one of the first sections of the canal to be re-opened back in 1973, just 8 years after it had closed.

West of Ratho, the Almond Aqueduct is one of the most pleasant spots on the canal. The Almond valley here is wooded, and the motorway is sufficiently far away for its noise to be masked by the trees. The aqueduct itself is not as big as the Avon or Slateford ones, but is impressive nontheless. At its eastern end, the main water feed enters the canal. The water supply begins its life at Cobbinshaw Reservior, built especially to provide the canal with water, and flows down the Bog Burn and the Murieston Water to join the River Almond near Mid Calder. Then, in Almondell Country Park, a few miles upstream from the aqueduct, the water is taken out of the river by a weir and flows down a little feeder channel, a sort of miniature canal in itself, complete with its own aqueduct, several tunnels and bridges, and a towpath all the way along.

The Almond Aqueduct, west of Ratho

The main canal, meanwhile, comes back out into the open west of the aqueduct, and continues for a few miles through pleasant countryside. Two minor roads cross on bridges 19 and 20, followed by the busiest road in Scotland, the M8 motorway. For thirty years, the motorway just sliced across the canal, the water piped and the towpath blocked, but not anymore. The canal has been realigned and a new bridge (number 21A) now carries the motorway across it, allowing boaters and walkers to continue underneath en route to Broxburn.