Flash: Carron Roads, River Forth

Explorer Tom The Kelpies are two enormous horse heads beside the canal at Falkirk, each thirty metres high and each perfectly capable of making you feel like a sugar cube. They look powerful from the path, and even stranger when you walk close enough to see their steel skin. If a mythical water horse ever wanted a portrait, it would probably insist on this scale. Artist Andy Scott made the sculptures for the Helix, a park between Falkirk and Grangemouth. Their form honours the heavy Clydesdale horses that pulled barges along Scotland's canals and worked the local fields. The name comes from the shape-shifting water horses of Scottish stories, so the real working animals and the imagined ones meet at the water's edge. The Kelpies were unveiled in 2014, beside a canal extension linking the Forth and Clyde Canal towards the North Sea. They are a modern work, but their subject belongs to the older labour that kept boats and goods moving. A stroll around the base changes the view with every few steps: ears, nostrils and great curved necks turn from solid shapes to open patterns of metal and sky. The park has paths, places to play and room to linger, making the visit more than a dash out of the car for one photograph. The sculptures are especially striking after dark when their lights come on, though the weather gets a vote in how long you stay outside. The outdoor park can be explored on foot; check current arrangements if you want a guided look inside the sculptures or need particular facilities. Then stand under a horse's chin and picture it asking for an apple. You may have to bring a very large one.