I’ve put up a page with photos of Athlone Lock on the River Shannon, including much elegant nineteenth-century equipment. I find I’m not entirely sure what it was all for, so if anyone can help by leaving a Comment, please do so.
I’ll do the same for a canal lock shortly.
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).
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).
Posted in Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, The turf trade
Tagged boats, canal, Castleconnell, distillery, Ireland, Limerick, lost, Macnab, Montpelier, O'Briensbridge, Operations, Portcrusha, Shannon, Stein Brown, turf, vessels, waterways
This page is about an unsuccessful search for the Lough Boora feeder, which joined the Grand Canal west of Pollagh and, befoer 1936, was used by boats serving the peat works at Turraun. There is a vaguely canal-like object and there are several photos of bogs, including the Lough Boora parklands.
Posted in Forgotten navigations, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged boats, canal, Grand Canal, Ireland, lost, turf, waterways
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.
Posted in Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged barge, Barrow, Blackwater, boats, canal, cattle ferry, community barge, Devenish, dredger, DUKW, Enniskillen, Erne, ESB, Garda, Grand Canal, Guinness, hare krishna, hotel boat, Ireland, Ireland waterways rockville, Killaloe, Lagan, Limerick, Lough Neagh, Monasterevan, Nore, Operations, PSNI, rescue, restaurant boat, RNLI, sand, Shannon, Shannon–Erne Waterway, Suir, theatre barge, trip boat, vessels, waterways, workboat
I have put up four pages covering the Main Line of the Irish Grand Canal from Suir Road to the original terminus at Grand Canal Harbour, James’s Street. This account covers Guinness and Dublin’s water supply as well as the line of the canal. There are some photos of trams and of the 1′ 10″ gauge Guinness locomotives for Steam Men. Page 1 of 4 is here.
Posted in Forgotten navigations, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged Ballinasloe, boats, canal, Carlow, City Basin, Grand Canal, Guinness, harbour, Ireland, James Bond, James's Street, Limerick, lost, LUAS, Marrowbone Lane, Operations, porter, Rupee Bridge, stout, sugar, train, tram, turf, water supply, waterways
Just as a change from all the pages about lost waterways, I’ve put up a page of photos of Waterways Ireland workboats.
Posted in Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged Apollo Duck, Barrow, boats, canal, Coill-an-Eo, Ferrinch, Fox, Grand Canal, Ireland, Operations, Shannon, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland, WB2
I’ve added two items to my page about Monasterevan. One is about the ban on Sunday traffic and the other is about how boats got across the Barrow before the aqueduct was built. I’m afraid the items are in the middle of the text ….
I’ve added some photos of Moscow to my page South of Moscow, north of Geneva about the Grand Canal Company’s collieries.
Posted in Forgotten navigations, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged canal, coal, Grand Canal, Ireland, lost, Monasterevan, Monastereven, Monasterevin, Mountmellick, Operations, waterways
Here’s a new page about some canals that were never built: several proposals for canals to the Grand Canal Company’s collieries in Co Laois.
Posted in Forgotten navigations, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged Barrow, canal, coal, Grand Canal, Ireland, Monasterevan, Mountmellick, Operations, waterways
Irish waterways history