How superb. Now, I wonder if there are people in Scotland poohpoohing the bridle thing and going "oh noes superstitious rubbish", or indeed "oh noes ridiculous waste of money for giant horsey heads which could just be a normal functional lock"?

The reason I ask is that I've kind of gotten the impression that in places like Scotland and Ireland and England, certain local traditions go unchallenged. Whereas, for example, there was a massive stink here in NZ a few years ago when some proposed roading turned out to go right into what local Maori believed was a taniwha's territory and had to be shifted over a few feet. If Scottish boatowners can get bridles to tame some pretend kelpies, you'd think NZers could go "oh well, taniwha, best safe than sorry."

DItto, I would totally have a bridle. That was my one significant issue with the movie "The Water Horse" - kelpies are *not friendly and nice*. Lovely movie otherwise, though.

If I can only have one or the other, I'll take ugly and functional over pretty and dysfunctional. I was roundly envied by some friends because my server room was in a building with 90° angles at the corners and all that boring rectilinear shit, while theirs was in this thing and had such "useful" "features" as a window that opened out over the garage entry ramp. An openable window in a data center. Yeah.

On those rare occasions when we're lucky, we get pretty and functional. Unfortunately, we more often get ugly and dysfunctional.

Not the IT folks. You might sense a pattern to these slides.

I am so going to Scotland to see that when it is built!

I am especially pleased about the bridles. It is never a good idea to use local lore wrongly in large engineering projects.

Oh, that's just *asking* to have an episode of Torchwood filmed there, ennit?

Wow. That has got to be one the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Now my desire to go across the pond has increased at least 20%.

British Waterways is quick to point out that anyone travelling through the boat lift will be given a small bridle which according to legend would tame the creature and allow safe passage.

Seriously? I must have lost my sense of wonder for a moment there, because my first thought was, "Well, that's a lot of money spent on bridles for no good reason."

I'm assuming the bridle thing is a gimmick, and not the folks at British Waterways trying to, yanno, actually tame anything. Because I'm not sure how much I'd trust an organization that actually believes in the Kelpie.

I guess if they ask for the bridle back when you're done with the boat lift, that would be okay. And if they'd bothered to read Blood & Iron, they'd know that you could just find out the Kelpie's name, which seems a lot more cost effective. ;)

I am entranced...thank you for the links.

Thanks. This is so cool I had to share - I linked it on Metafilter, with attribution.

@_@ I. Love. Scotland.

I vote for more ponies.

More ponies, less roller derby. :P

One-TENTH scale maquettes?

Holy crap.

That would be mind-blowingly huge full-scale...

Me, I'll take shiny, functional, AND respectful of local spirits/beings/things what go bump in the night, thank you very much...

Hey, how cool!

The Wheel is a wonderful piece of engineering anyway but this addition is brilliant. Ah cannae wait.