Tag Archives: Grand Canal

Updates 25 June 2009

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.

A Grand Canal lock: Belmont

To complement my page about Athlone lock on the Shannon, here’s a description of Belmont lock on the Grand Canal. As always, I welcome comments, suggestions or ideas about anything I have omitted or misunderstood.

Some updates

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.

The Lough Boora feeder

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.

More workboats

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.

The abandoned line of the Grand Canal to James’s St Harbour

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.

Wooden boats

I’ve moved my photos of wooden boats on Irish inland waterways from pbase.com to here, with a few extra photos added.

Waterways Ireland workboats

Just as a change from all the pages about lost waterways, I’ve put up a page of photos of Waterways Ireland workboats.

Monasterevan revisited

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 ….

A stout fellow

Uncle Arthur is resting at Ardclough, near the Grand Canal. His brewery is 250 years old this year, but he himself is sadly neglected — and suffering badly from thirst.

In recognition of his major contribution to the development and use of Irish waterways, a small ceremony was held recently at Ardclough, at which he was presented with a bottle of his finest product. This page records the event.