Category Archives: Irish inland waterways vessels

Updates 25 June 2009

Posted on Thursday 25 June 2009 | Leave a comment

I’ve added photos to some of the boat pages. Several of the new photos were kindly supplied by Tina of Wasserrausch, to whom I am very grateful. The additions are:

– Traditional boats and replicas has a new photo of an Erne cot, supplied by Tina

– Waterways Ireland workboats has photos of the new vessel Inis Cealtra (I’ve already announced these) and two photos of small boats at Munster Harbour. It also has a link to a page of detailed photos of Inis Cealtra

– Non-WI workboats has photos, supplied by Tina, of ferries and workboats on Lough Erne and of two boats operated by environmental authorities

– Sailing boats has photos of the skutsje Nieuwe Zorgen, which arrived on the Irish waterways in 2008

– Wooden boats has several new photos of wooden boats photographed recently at Shannon Harbour, as well as a few better photos of boats that were already listed

– Boats that are different has one addition.

As always, if I’ve got anything wrong, or omitted anything, do please leave a Comment at the bottom of the relevant page.

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Posted in Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations

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Waterways Ireland’s latest workboat: Inis Cealtra

Posted on Monday 22 June 2009 | Leave a comment

Here are photographs of Waterways Ireland’s latest workboat, Inis Cealtra. The photos were taken at Portumna, at the head of Lough Derg, after Inis Cealtra, built in Killybegs Co Donegal, had travelled down the west coast, up the Shannon Estuary, through Limerick and then via Ardnacrusha Lock to Lough Derg on the Shannon.

These photos are of details, and are probably for the anoraks; for more general views, see the pics supplied by Waterways Ireland on my general WI workboats page.

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Some updates

Posted on Friday 5 June 2009 | Leave a comment

These are pretty minor additions: a nice Lister-driven wooden boat (towards the bottom of the page), the Holy Island ferry added to the Non-WI workboats and some groups of sailing boats on Lough Derg.

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The Eglinton Canal in Galway

Posted on Thursday 28 May 2009 | Leave a comment

This short canal, less than a mile long, connected Lough Corrib to the sea at Galway. It had two locks, including a sea lock, five swivelling bridges and a substantial canal basin. It was abandoned in 1954 when the swivelling bridges were replaced by fixed bridges. The last vessel down the canal was the Amo II, a 90′ motor yacht sold by the Guinness trustees to a Galway hotelier. Here is a brief account.

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Posted in Forgotten navigations, Irish inland waterways vessels

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The middle Suir, from Carrick-on-Suir to Waterford

Posted on Friday 22 May 2009 | Leave a comment

This navigation is still used by pleasure boats, notably by the members of the Carrick-on-Suir Boat Club, but its once-busy commercial traffic has largely ceased; the final nail will be hammered in when the new Waterford bypass road-bridge crosses the Suir and prevents tankers from supplying Morris Oil at Fiddown. This account includes some historical material and photos taken on a trip downriver aboard the barge 31B.

I’m referring to it as the middle Suir as there was a horse-drawn navigation upstream from Carrick to Clonmel and of course ships can come up to Waterford from the sea (as well as more interesting vessels from the Nore and the Barrow).

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Posted in Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations

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John’s Canal in Macnab’s Bog, Castleconnell, Montpelier and O’Briensbridge

Posted on Friday 22 May 2009 | Leave a comment

Here is a page about John’s Canal, which was used to extract turf from Macnab’s Bog at Mona Lodge, Portcrusha, between Castleconnell and Montpelier in Limerick (Montpelier is at the other end of the bridge at O’Briensbridge).

The bog seems to have been opened by John Brown (or Browne) of the Stein Brown(e) Distillery at Thomondgate in Limerick. Turf was carried by water from the bog to the distillery, where it was used to fuel the first steam engine in Limerick. The bog was managed by James Macnab, who took over the lease in 1841; after his death his son Alexander Allen Macnab took over. The bog was an early operation of a managed industrial extraction and production enterprise, operating throughout most of the year and drying the material to produce “stone turf”. About 5000 tons were produced each year.

The canal system had a wooden bridge (now vanished), several branches (some still visible), a lock gate (gone) and a stone pier/quay (still visible).

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Posted in Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, The turf trade

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Sailing boats

Posted on Thursday 21 May 2009 | Leave a comment

I’ve put up some photos of sailing boats, large and small, on Irish inland waters. There is, alas, a considerable over-representation of Lough Derg: I must take more photos elsewhere. There are several photos of Dutch steel sailing boats, including some, of lelievlets, from Nawaka in the Netherlands: these boats are also used by the Scouts near Killaloe on Lough Derg.

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Some updates

Posted on Monday 18 May 2009 | Leave a comment

I have added some extra photos to the page on wooden boats. There are new photos of Christine (now given its name) and Cirrus (a nice photo, if I say so myself) and five boats have been added: Beal na Blath, Catherine B and Jemmy X, as well as two unidentified boats. If anyone can name any of the unidentified boats, I would be grateful.

I have also added two retired trip-boats to the page on non-WI working boats: one is on the hard in Banagher and one is Gertie,which ran trips from Keshcarrigan on the Shannon–Erne Waterway but has been tied up in Shannon Harbour for many years.

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Posted in Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels

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Boats that are … different

Posted on Sunday 10 May 2009 | Leave a comment

Some people like to do their own thing. Not for them the off-the-shelf mass-produced GRP boat; not the elegant wooden cruiser nor even the conventional barge conversion. They design their boats to meet specific needs, solve specific problems and satisfy their own tastes. Here are some of the results.

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More workboats

Posted on Thursday 7 May 2009 | Leave a comment

Here is a very long page showing working boats that are not operated by Waterways Ireland. They include hotel boats, restaurant boats, trip boats, rescue boats, police boats and sand barges.

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Posted in Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations

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