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On the partly landscaped land to the south side of the M8 at Riddrie, just east of the gasometers and the junction with the M80, is the site of the Blackhill Incline.

The M8 itself is, more or less, on the site of the Blackhill Locks. This double flight of locks connected two portions of the Monkland Canal, the canal dropping 96ft in height as it made its way west. The canal's purpose was to bring coal to Glasgow, to break the stranglehold of the Glasgow coal cartel and reduce prices. Coal traffic from the Monklands was considerable. The canal also carried iron produced in the Coatbridge iron works. The double flight of locks was not capable of handling it, and operation of locks wastes a lot of the canal water (very expensive when barges are empty), so a double incline was built to their south. By this time the Monkland Canal was owned by the Forth and Clyde Canal (since 1846).

The incline was approached by two short arms of the canal. It was counterbalanced, assisted by an engine at the top of the incline, the weight of the descending rail mounted 'caisson' (a considerable container on 20 wheels capable of carrying 70ft barges, described as 'water tight cradles' in the newspapers of the time) being matched by the ascending caisson. Empty barges went up the incline, loaded barges continued to use the locks. Some barges did come down the incline, but were vastly outnumbered by those going up. For much of the length the incline was in a cutting. The The Switchback (Caledonian Railway) crossed over the canal just west of the locks and incline.

James Leslie reported 'From 20th March till 23rd August 1851 there were passed over the incline 5227 boats up and 225 down making a total of 5452 The longest day's work was 10 hours and the greatest number of boats passed in a day was 55.' And, in particular, 'saving 60,000,000 cubic feet of water'.

This incline may have followed a similar course to the original connection between the lower and upper portions of the canal, before the first locks were built in 1794.

The incline fell out of use around 1887 as railway competition increased and costs of boiler maintenance increased. Closure of the canal was in 1952, at the time the route of the incline was still obvious.

Engineer: James Leslie Length: 1040 ft
Height: 96 ft
Gradient: 1 in 10
Gauge: 2 lines of 7 ft
Caissons: 70 ft long x 13ft 4 in wide x 2 ft 9 in deep (water depth 2 ft, deepest draught vessels were 18 to 21 in empty)
Stationary engines: 2 of 25 hp
Time to ascend: 6 minutes (locks: 45 minutes)
Nickname: The gazzoon (corruption of caisson?)
Cost: £13,500 (it had cost £16,000 to build the second line of locks)

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