Members of the Heritage Boat Association have, in recent weeks, visited Piltown (Co Kilkenny) and Portlaw (Co Waterford) by barge, the first time in many years that large vessels have been up those rivers.
Many of the published accounts of Portlaw, including the Heritage Council’s Heritage Conservation Plan, pay inadequate attention to the navigation of the Clodiagh; it may have been even richer than we thought.
The HBA has a press release about some significant finds at Portlaw.
The owners of the barge Hawthorn joined other boats for the trips and wrote about them here:
- from Piltown to Portlaw on the river Clodiagh
- escaping Portlaw (scary stuff).
Here is the relevant section of the OSI map for Portlaw (choose one of the Historic options). Here is where the Pil joins the Suir (zoomed out).
Here is my own article (in need of updating) about Portlaw and the Clodiagh.
Incidentally, I contend that the OSI maps are wrong in describing the gates on the canal as flood gates: they would open to, rather than close against, an incoming flood, and would prevent the discharge of an outgoing flood.
Irish waterways history 