They were grim days when children like Margaret King, just 12 years old, could be cast aside by their family to find their own way in the world.

Honest and industrious, the little girl fended for herself for a decade, working hard as a humble farm servant and never in trouble in her short life. Not until, at least, she fell in love.

And on a terrible night in March 1903, Margaret, by then 22, abandoned by her lover, broken from months spent pregnant in the poorhouse, and left holding her baby with no-one in the world to help her, she laid her tiny bundle down by the banks of the Union Canal, and walked away.

Baby Thomas was later pulled from the canal in Camelon, and Margaret would become one of an alarming number of desperate women of the times to find herself in court charged with killing her child.

Her case became known as The Falkirk Canal Tragedy: a tangled tale of child neglect, poverty, hopelessness and despair, sadly, far from unusual for the times.

For those trapped in poverty, desperate times often led to desperate measures; the still body of water that flowed from the heart of Edinburgh to the edge of Falkirk all too often became, sadly, a watery grave for infants, drunks and more than a few murder victims.

These days, of course, the canal banks are picturesque arteries that thrive with wildflowers and wildlife, paddleboarders and boat homes, where families retreat for peaceful walks and to take advantage of the flat stretch of well-maintained tow paths for cycling and jogging.

And soon the Union Canal, along with the 60 miles Caledonian Canal, cutting through the picturesque scenery of the Great Glen, will be at the centre of celebrations marking 200 years since both opened.

In line with Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, the bicentenaries are expected to focus heavily on the stories surrounding the mammoth effort involved in their construction, the characters behind their rise, their demise and how new life was breathed into both as they shifted from industrial waterways to leisure tourist attractions.

According to Chris O’Connell, Heritage Manager of Scottish Canals, while the two canals share a similar timeline, there are very different elements to both - and in the case of the Union Canal, a lot of muck and a link with the two most notorious murderers of their times.

The plan for a canal linking Edinburgh with Falkirk where it could link to the Forth and Clyde Canal, first emerged in 1793. Having been given the go-ahead, it would take just four years to complete the massive task of construction.

The work included the construction of huge stone-built aquaducts with iron ‘troughs’ fitted inside to contain the water.

Hundreds of workers were drafted in, among them, apparently, a pair of Irish navvies called William Burke, and William Hare.

“It would have been a massive project,” says Chris, “with squads of workers dedicated to a particular role who would move from one section to another. They’d have been supported by lots of trades, with someone supplying the horses, shoeing the horses, farmers, smiddies, people making tools, stone masons, carpenters, whole of ancillary trade brought in to support that.

“Burke and Hare were navvies who worked in various places and would have had experience of working on canals in England. They would have taken advantage of the need for skilled labour.”

The 31.5 miles long canal was designed to follow the contours of the land making lochs unnecessary. One of the last great feats of canal construction, was intended to meet a very particular need, he adds.

“It was a significant engineering feat and only canal of its kind in Scotland,” says Chris.

“The intention was to take coal from central belt to Edinburgh, to keep the fires in the New Town burning.

“What went in the Edinburgh direction was for use in a domestic setting, whereas coal heading to Glasgow tended to be for factories and steam engines.”

But while coal flowed into Edinburgh for home comforts, what flowed out was, perhaps, not quite as charming.

“What Edinburgh shipped out was quite a lot of horse manure,” Chris adds. “Edinburgh got black gold in the form of coal, and coming from Edinburgh was all the horse manure bound for farmers’ fields.

“It was a nice circular economy.”

Other materials were shipped by canal, including stone from Hailes Quarry in Edinburgh and timber which arrived from the Baltic states and Scandinavia.

But while it was initially a success, the canal was soon overtaken by the arrival of railways. And within two decades it was already in decline.

It closed in 1965 and large stretches became ‘no go’ zones for locals until it was reopened thanks to the £84.5m Millennium Link Project.

In Inverness, meanwhile, the plan for the Caledonian Canal had much different origins.

And rather than helping to fuel the industrial revolution, the canal was intended to help stave off the threat of French invasion and encourage Highlanders against the temptations of emigration.

“Thomas Telford said it would help stop the flow of emigrees out of Scotland due to the Highland clearances, stimulate jobs and keep people in the country.

“Meanwhile, the Royal Navy was at war with Napoleon and French were patrolling with their 30 gun frigates. The Navy wanted one safe harbour like Inverness, and a way of cutting across the country quickly to intercept the French boats.

“So the canal would be a shortcut across the country to get from north to Irish Sea in a couple of days rather than chasing these vessels around the coast.

“However, the Navy never got to usd it because they won the Battle of Waterloo and because advances in shipbuilding meant Navy boats became too big for the canals.”

Instead, the Caledonian Canal, built at a cost of £910,000 over 12 years, provided passage for fisheries to transport their catches, and opened up the Highlands to new goods.

“Global trade was kicking off,” says Chris. “There are reports of barrels loaded with peppercorns that had come from the Far East coming up the Caledonian Canal.

“Imagine being a little boy in the mid-1800s and seeing these barges with peppercorns and mace and other connections to this whole other world.”

Scottish Canals is planning a year of activities to mark the bicentenaries, including canal challenges, flotillas, lighting up landmark structures and local festivals.

The history of the Union Canal will be marked with a static exhibition, a floating exhibition, a special Canal flotilla, and the Edinburgh Canal Festival in June 2022.

However, the organisation has also confirmed it is conducting its first pricing review of leisure and residential moorings as well as transit and navigation licences in five years. It is expected to lead to higher charges for canal users.