Category Archives: Built heritage

Royal Canal shrinks

Posted on Wednesday 30 March 2011 | Leave a comment

According to the 1994 Guide to the Royal Canal of Ireland, the smallest lock on the Royal, Lock 18, is 75 feet (22.9m) long, with a breadth of 13.3 feet (4.0m) and a depth of 4.7 feet (1.4m) on the cill.

According to Waterways Ireland, the navigational criteria for the Royal Canal are:

Length: 21m
Beam: 3.9m
Draft: 1m

L T C Rolt, in Green and Silver, said that the maximum size of vessel that could navigate the whole of the Royal was 70 feet by 13 feet 1 inch by 4 feet six inches “(theoretical)”. He said that lock sizes varied considerably, the shortest being 75 feet and the narrowest 13 feet 3.75 inches.

The navigational criteria for the Grand are:

Length: 18.5m
Beam: 3.9m
Draft: 1.2m (1m in Dublin)

So the Royal is throughout shallower than the Grand (except in Dublin) and the locks have got narrower and shorter.

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Restoration and rebuilding, Waterways management

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Somebody bet on the Beagh

Posted on Wednesday 30 March 2011 | Leave a comment

A quay on the south side of the Shannon Estuary, with bollards from the H Lee foundry and with a castle for sale. Pics taken on a grey day, just right for a muddy estuary ….

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Operations, Scenery, shannon estuary, Steamers, Tourism, Water sports activities, Weather

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Shannon hooker

Posted on Wednesday 23 March 2011 | Leave a comment

No, not a rugby player, but a replica of one of the Shannon estuary workboats — the Massey Fergusons of their day — that carried turf towards Limerick and limestone back, as well as anything else that needed shifting further, or in larger quantities, than the canoes could manage.

The boat is being built at Querrin; see this article in the Irish Times.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, shannon estuary, The turf trade

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Who built the quay at Kildysart?

Posted on Monday 21 March 2011 | Leave a comment

The Shannon Commissioners didn’t, but who did? Read about it here. Topics covered include a quad bike, a gandalow and a mausoleum.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Operations, shannon estuary, Steamers, The cattle trade, Waterways management

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Crovraghan continuity

Posted on Saturday 19 March 2011 | 1 comment

The cattle-carrying lighters and other interesting boats at Crovraghan.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Scenery, shannon estuary, The cattle trade

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Rosscliff

Posted on Friday 18 March 2011 | Leave a comment

Rosscliff is a cattle port on the Fergus estuary. It is not clear whether this is the location of the quay referred to by Lewis and the Parliamentary Gazetteer in their entries for Ballinacally (Ballynacally).

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Scenery, shannon estuary, The cattle trade

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Location

Posted on Wednesday 16 March 2011 | Leave a comment

Page 84 of Ruth Delany’s The Shannon Navigation (Lilliput Press 2008) has a drawing with this caption:

A drawing by Edward Jones which it is thought might depict the Shannon Commission’s survey in progress at an unidentified location possibly down the Shannon Estuary. (Courtesy of the Society of Antiquaries of London)

I suggest that the drawing is of Saleen, on the Ballylongford Creek in Co Kerry, on the lower reaches of the Shannon Estuary. The first word written on the  drawing looks like “Sawline”, which might be a version of “Saleen”.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Operations, People, Scenery, shannon estuary, Sources, The turf trade, Waterways management

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Dublin saunter

Posted on Tuesday 15 March 2011 | Leave a comment

I’ve made some changes to my pages about (parts of) the waterways in Dublin. Essentially, I’ve suggested a walking route that would take you:

  • from Connolly Station to Newcomen Bridge and Lock 1 on the Royal Canal, then up the Royal as far as Lock 5 (with possibilities for refreshment)
  • back a bit to the junction with the abandoned Broadstone Line, then down that line to Constitution Hill
  • from there to the Liffey quays, with some thoughts on the Guinness Liffey barges, then up Steevens Lane and James’s Street to Echlin Street and the filled-in Grand Canal Harbour
  • around the harbour before ending in the Guinness Storehouse.

More information here or go directly to this page.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Rail, Tourism, Waterways management

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Fry’s Irish delight

Posted on Monday 14 March 2011 | 1 comment

Railway heads may wish to boogie on over to this site to look at a fifteen-minute video of the Fry Model Railway, which is to be evicted from its home at Malahide Castle.

The National Museum thinks saving the Fry isn’t really quite its sort of thing; no doubt it’s busy with its collection of frocks. It appears to possess one model steam railway locomotive; it has no steam engine, no diesel engine, but lots of stamps and coins.

The Fry includes some waterways items.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Non-waterway, Operations, Rail, Tourism

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Western Rail Corridor

Posted on Thursday 10 March 2011 | 1 comment

The Irish Times reports that numbers of passengers on the Western Rail Corridor from Limerick to Galway are at about two thirds of the level assumed in the “business case”.

Well I never. Who could have known?

No more restoration.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding

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