Category Archives: Forgotten navigations

I have just put up a page about the Upper Suir navigation, from Clonmel downstream to Carrick-on-Suir. This was an extraordinarily difficult navigation, with a fall of 57′ in about twelve miles — and not a single lock of any kind. There were shallows, rapids and floods: the level of the Suir could change very quickly in response to rainfall, and the currents, bad enough at the best of times, could rapidly become extremely dangerous. It is not surprising, therefore, that the worst accident in Irish inland waterways history was the drowning of over 100 people, most of them women and children, who were travelling downstream from Clonmel to Carrick.

And this navigation was worked entirely by horse power, with up to fifteen horses employed at times to haul the boats upstream.

This account includes extracts from poems and links to old photos, as well as many, many photos of major sections of the navigation. There is also a diversion to cover the millstreams and weirs of Clonmel and there are opinions from the authors of early guidebooks for oarsmen and canoeists. However, there are undoubtedly errors and omissions, and I welcome Comments that might help to improve this account.