Category Archives: Natural heritage

Bealkelly Woods

Bealkelly Woods, on the south side of Scarriff Bay near the mouth of the Scarriff River, will host another CELT Weekend in the Woods on 29 and 30 September 2012:

CELT Weekend in the Woods – 29th / 30th September – Bealkelly Oak Woods, Tuamgraney, Co.Clare.

Choose from 17 traditional and ecological skills introductory courses: Wood Carving, Longbow making, Felt-craft, Needle-felting, Basketry, Herb Lore, Sugan Chair making, Silversmithing, Natural Building, Coppersmithing, Blacksmithing, Bowl & Spoon making, Knife making, Musical Instrument making, Spinning / Weaving & Natural Dyeing, Dry-stone and Lime-mortar Walling, – and, for 8-14yrs, Adventure Bushcraft.

Cost 130 euro (concessions and group rates available). Free camping. Good lunch and refreshments available – also evening pizza from clay oven. Music and song round campfire Sat night. See website for more info.

More info on the CELT website.

Another attack on canalside trees

[Jeremy] Bentham would have been further interested to know that the Great Agitator[Daniel O’Connell] and Purcell O’Gorman, during a tedious journey by canal boat from Dublin, amused themselves firing pistol-shots at the trees on either side.

W J Fitzpatrick ed Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell The Liberator Vol II 1888

O’Connell refused to take part in duels but was said to be an excellent shot. More on Daniel O’Connell and inland waterways here.

The Underpants Gnomes and the Shincliffe Traveller

Here is an article from 1792 about the virtues of the River Shannon. It was written by an unidentified Traveller from Shincliffe, near Durham. It is interesting as an earlyish example of the Irish waterways cargo cult which, it has been pointed out to me, resembles the business plan of the underpants gnomes.

Buggering up the Barrow

In February 2012 Waterways Ireland published a study of the River Barrow called The Barrow Corridor Recreational, Tourism and Commercial Product Identification Study. I’ve devoted a lot of time to the document and I confess that, although I’m in favour of WI’s conducting these studies, I found this one rather disappointing. The principal problem, as I see it, is that the document just doesn’t hang together: it is not clear how the recommendations derive from the analysis. I also thought that its recommendations on navigation were weak, suggesting a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the Barrow.

I haven’t finished putting my thoughts on the subject together because I want to do the study justice, but I have put up six pages about the report, linked from an overview page here. I need to give the navigation page a little more thought; when it’s finished I’ll link it to the overview page and mention the matter here.

Bring back the Black

The Black Bridge at Plassey has been closed since the floods of November 2009. Its reopening seems to have a low priority; I suspect that is because the importance of the bridge in Ireland’s technological, economic, entrepreneurial and political history is not widely appreciated. Here is a page explaining some of the background and suggesting a context within which reopening might be justifiable.

Waterways walks

Look!

Waterways Ireland and a local authority have cooperated in opening a canalside walking and cycling path!

And an excitable minister opened it, saying

This has huge potential for tourism but it also has a huge knock on effect for communities in the health benefit facilities like this bring and this, in turn has benefits in reducing the press on our health services as well. I want to see more walkways because I want to see more people out walking and seeing the natural beauty that we here in Ireland are blessed to have around us.

And rightly so. But you don’t need an expensive canal in order to provide a walk.

 

 

 

Wind power

Lough Derg

Lunch …

… at Dromaan

… at Dromineer

Shannon eels

I have a page about the Shannon eel fishery here.

In April 2012 Frank Feighan TD asked many Dáil questions about the Shannon eel fishery; the answers provide a useful update to (and expansion of) the information on my page.

Shannon Princess II

Had I been able to erect a fence across the pier at Mountshannon recently, I might have made money by charging a fee to the many folk who walked down to look at the Shannon Princess II. When I told one chap that it was a hotel barge, he asked if he could go there for lunch. I tried to explain, but this notice from TravelWorld may explain it better.

Admittedly the headline is a bit misleading: when I saw it first I thought that the guests were to dress as artisans, whereas in fact the theme is artisan food, which means food made by members of the middle classes for sale to other members thereof. Put it this way: you might not invite the staff of your local Aldi to your garden parties but you would be quite happy to have your artisan food suppliers there. Not that I’ve anything against “artisan” food per se (indeed I buy lots of it); I just dislike the name.

More on the Shannon Princess here and here. When I win the lottery ….