Tag Archives: Ireland

Lagan Navigation: Ballyskeagh High Bridge

Posted on Tuesday 12 June 2012 | Leave a comment

A brief account here, with some photographs and some thoughts on the design of the locks of the Lagan Navigation.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, waterways

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Lough Derg water level

Posted on Monday 11 June 2012 | 1 comment

The water level on Lough Derg is very high, flowing over the guard lock at Killaloe.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang

Posted on Sunday 10 June 2012 | 1 comment

The old Limerick Navigation included a section of canal at Killaloe, with three locks. The uppermost, now disused, is still visible at Killaloe; the middle lock (Moys) is accessible by small boat; the third (Cussaun) is under water in the Flooded Area created by Parteen Villa Weir. The wall that divided the canal from the river downstream of Killaloe bridge forms an island whereon are the former eel-packing station run by the ESB, the former goods store (inhabited by Waterways Ireland) and the former marble mill (now an ESB engineering works). The island hosts the Killaloe market on Sunday mornings.

The curious can (obstructions permitting) walk a little further downstream to where the wall was breached, allowing boats to access the canal below the bridge without having to go as far as Moys Lock.

An obstruction

A section of the canal below the bridge in Killaloe ~1900 (OSI)

The west side of the canal, below the slip, was lined with trees.

The trees

May 2008

May 2008

May 2008

November 2008

November 2008

November 2008, with homemade boat shelter

The trees behind the marble mill: seen from the far side of the river in December 2009

August 2010

A fallen tree blocks the canal in December 2010

April 2011

April 2011

November 2011

November 2011

November 2011

Waterways Ireland Marine Notice 86 of 2011

MARINE NOTICE No. 86 of 2011
Shannon Navigation
Lough Derg
Killaloe Canal

Canal Maintenance – Tree Cutting

Waterways Ireland wishes to advise all masters and owners of vessels that tree cutting will take place along the Killaloe Canal banks from the vicinity of the cathedral downstream to the lower entrance from the river
Shannon, from Monday 19th Sep until about mid Oct.

Access to this section of the canal will be closed during this period. […]

Marine Notice 24/2012 of 16 March 2012 said

Works are still ongoing along the Killaloe Canal banks from the vicinity of the Cathedral downstream to the lower entrance from the river Shannon.

Access to this section of the canal will be closed until further notice.

That notice has not (as of 10 June 2012) been withdrawn so it must be assumed that the works continue.

Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad?

The works photographed on 10 June 2012.

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Posted in Ashore, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Operations, Scenery, Shannon, waterways, Waterways management

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Mullingar

Posted on Saturday 2 June 2012 | Leave a comment

The Met Éireann report [PDF] for spring (March to May) 2012 shows that rainfall measured at its Mullingar station was only 59% of the average for 1981–2010.

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Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Operations, Sources, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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Towpath: legal case about access

Posted on Wednesday 30 May 2012 | Leave a comment

The Irish Times has a report here.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, People, waterways, Waterways management

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Kildare Nationalist

Posted on Tuesday 29 May 2012 | Leave a comment

Look out for Aoife Barry’s article “Hidden Gems: Local Canal Ways” in the “news from Naas” section of the Kildare Nationalist of 29 May 2012. It’s not yet on the website but should be soon.

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Sources, waterways

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Just in case you were wondering …

Posted on Tuesday 29 May 2012 | Leave a comment

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Waterways management

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Grand Canal basin: barriers of various kinds

Posted on Tuesday 29 May 2012 | Leave a comment

The Dublin People has the story.

Don’t those fluorescent colours look disgusting? Enough to give you a headache. Bring back the gas works, say I: at least they could cure whooping cough.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, The turf trade, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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WI’s brand identity

Posted on Tuesday 29 May 2012 | Leave a comment

According to this website it …

[…] had to represent an All-Island body, reflect its unique authority and represent its core values of Strength, Distinctive, Independent, Caring, Environmental and Connecting.

I can see that.

I wonder why only one of the values is a noun.

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Ireland, waterways, Waterways management

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Shannon traffic figures, first four months of 2012

Posted on Monday 28 May 2012 | Leave a comment

The Shannon traffic figures for the early part of the year need to be treated with caution. As at other times of the year, the figures show only vessels that passed through locks (and Portumna Bridge), so boats out on the lakes, or on the river between locks, will not be recorded. So the traffic figures don’t tell us the total amount of traffic; their main use is in showing trends from year to year.

The figures for the early months have a further disadvantage. Numbers of passages are low anyway and a single event — especially a weather event like floods, ice or gales — can have a major effect on winter and spring traffic, whereas the effect might be much smaller on the figures for the whole year.

I am grateful to Waterways Ireland for supplying the figures. I have them for each counting point, but won’t give all that detail here.

January 2012: 35
February 2012: 59
March 2012: 642
April 2012: 3316
Total: 4052

To put that in context, here are the figures from 2002 onwards:

Year J F M A YTD 5YMA
2002 10 6 1331 3528 4875  
2003 10 35 644 5515 6204 5157.4
2004 60 52 424 4768 5304 5524.6
2005 13 54 2162 3123 5352 5848.6
2006 37 55 591 5205 5888 5423.4
2007 42 85 698 5670 6495 5358.2
2008 28 44 1377 2629 4078 4991.0
2009 42 82 563 4291 4978 4849.6
2010 30 45 495 2946 3516 4363.o
2011 48 66 512 4555 5181  
2012 35 59 642 3316 4062  

The YTD column is Year To Date; 5YMA is a five-year moving average, which might remove some of the distortion caused by one-off events like ice and floods. I still wouldn’t read too much into four months’ figures, but the general trend is downwards.

 

 

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Waterways management, Weather

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