Category Archives: Natural heritage

Forts, weirs, piers, power stations …

Posted on Friday 26 August 2011 | Leave a comment

… just some of the things you can see from the Killimer to Tarbert ferry.

Actually, I lied about the weirs, but they were there once. As were the salmon.

Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, Scenery, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The fishing trade, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

Tagged battery, boats, Clare, Endesa, ESB, estuary, ferry, flow, fort, Ireland, jetties, Kerry, Kilkerin, Killaloe, Killimer, Kilrush, lighthouse, Limerick, Napoleon, Operations, power station, quay, redoubt, Shannon, Tarbert, Tarbert Race, Tarbert Roads, vessels, waterways, weir, workboat

Get me a duck punt

Posted on Tuesday 14 June 2011 | Leave a comment

I have updated my page about the designation of the Shannon and Fergus estuaries as a Special Protection Area for our feathered friends. The more I learn about this proposal, the less I like it.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, shannon estuary, Steamers, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

Tagged birds, boats, Clare, estuary, Fergus, industrial heritage, Ireland, Kilrush, Limerick, Shannon, turf, vessels, waterways

Watch the birdie

Posted on Monday 13 June 2011 | Leave a comment

Some thoughts on the proposed Special Protection Area for our feathered friends on the estuaries of the Shannon and the Fergus.

How much tax did the birds pay last year? And if (as I suspect) they’ve been keeping their wealth offshore, and contributing little to the rescue of the German banks, how come they get more say in estuarial activities than I do?

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Scenery, shannon estuary, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways

Tagged birds, birds directive, department of arts heritage and the gaeltacht, estuary, Fergus, Ireland, Shannon, shotgun, special protection area, waterways

Big it up for Waterways Ireland

Posted on Tuesday 15 March 2011 | 2 comments

Waterways Ireland and the National Trails Office have come together to develop a technical specification, including code of practice and risk assessment for canoe and small vessel trails in Ireland.

The National Trails Office started work on the classification of water based trails in its publication,”Classification and grading of recreational trails.” The purpose of this tender is to develop this process further and produce a technical specification, including a code of practice and risk assessment for the future development of canoe and other small water vessel trails on the rivers and waterways of Ireland.

Tender notice on the eTenders Public Procurement website here, but you may need to be registered to get the bumpy.

This is a Jolly Good Idea and much to be encouraged. There are some suggestions for possible trails (mostly not on WI waters) on this site.

2 Comments

Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, Tourism, Water sports activities

Tagged boats, canal, Ireland, Ireland waterways rockville, Limerick, lock, Montpelier, O'Briensbridge, Shannon, waterways, Waterways Ireland

Splashing the (marine) cash

Posted on Tuesday 15 March 2011 | 1 comment

Extract from the Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine Casualties) Act 2000:

Advances by Minister for marine or natural resources based tourism or heritage projects.

46.—The Minister may, from time to time, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, advance to a person, out of monies provided by the Oireachtas, for the purposes of marine or natural resource based tourism or heritage projects, such sums, by way of grant or loan, as the Minister may determine and upon such terms and conditions as he or she considers necessary.

That provision has nothing whatsoever to do with marine casualties. It seems to allow ministers to splash the (taxpayers’) cash to anyone they favour. The provision should be repealed immediately.

I presume that the minister, at the time when the act was introduced, did not notice the oddity of this inclusion.

1 Comment

Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Tourism

Tagged Fianna Fail, Ireland, marine, marine casualties, MCIB

Liffey dissent

Posted on Friday 11 March 2011 | Leave a comment

Here is a potentially interesting case about rights on rivers.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Forgotten navigations, Natural heritage, Operations, Water sports activities

Tagged anglers, boats, Chapelizod, city council, Dublin, Ireland, Islandbridge, Liffey

Up the creek

Posted on Tuesday 1 March 2011 | Leave a comment

Ballycorick Bridge is north of Ballynacally, on the western side of the Fergus estuary in Co Clare. There is a small quay just below the bridge; Samuel Lewis mentioned the trade to that quay in 1837, and it stayed in use until the 1950s.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Natural heritage, Operations, shannon estuary

Tagged Ballinakella Press, Ballycorick, Ballycorig, Bannatynes, barony of Islands, boats, bridge, Clare, Clondagad, Clondegad, creek, Fergus, five arches, Ireland, jetties, John Bickerdyke's, Limerick, lost, mud, Operations, Owenslieve, Paradise, quay, Ranks, river, Sammo estuarius, Samuel Lewis, Shannon, slob trout, Theodore Cook, Thomas Rice Henn, vessels, water level, waterways, Wild Sports in Ireland

The upper Barrow

Posted on Tuesday 15 February 2011 | Leave a comment

Charlie Horan (of Go with the Flow, the canoe expedition specialists) left a comment on my post about Abbeyleix (below) saying

I have some very very interesting pictures of the Barrow near source in flood taken just two weeks ago ….

And here they are. They are indeed interesting!

White water (courtesy Eamonn and Charlie Horan)

Eek (courtesy Eamonn and Charlie Horan)

The burling Barrow brown (as Gerald Manley Hopkins called it) (courtesy Eamonn and Charlie Horan)

Even the indefatigable F E Prothero might have been put off …. He canoed down from Mountmellick to Athy in 1897, taking about eight and a half hours. Major Rowland Raven-Hart said that the Barrow had been canoed from a little above Portarlington (which is downstream of Mountmellick); there is a PDF of his book here.

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Posted in Ashore, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Scenery, Water sports activities

Tagged Barrow, canoe, go with the flow, Ireland, kayak, Mountmellick, Portarlington, waterways