So late as the year 1807 the mail bags between Waterford and Clonmel were carried in a common cart and there was no public mode of conveyance between Carrick-on-Suir and Waterford but passage boats, the chief of which is well remembered as Tom Morrissey’s boat. These dropped from one town to the other as the tide served, fare fourpence a head, distance twelve miles, time occupied seven hours.
George Lewis Smyth Ireland: Historical and Statistical Vol II Whittaker and Co, London 1847, Chapter 14
Apologies to folk who have left Comments or otherwise communicated in recent weeks: I’ve been away, most recently at the far end of the Shannon and at Greenwich. I am now beginning to tackle my correspondence.
De Wadden
De Wadden formerly traded to the (Munster) Blackwater and is now displayed in a dry dock at Liverpool. I knew she was there, but I hadn’t known that the Kathleen & May, now on sale, was there too.
Kathleen & May
In Greenwich, I saw a bust of George Biddell Airy, late Astronomer Royal, whose work on the tides of the Shannon Estuary is of such great interest.
George Biddell Airy
Posted in Ashore, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, shannon estuary, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Airy, Blackwater, boats, De Wadden, Ireland, Kathleen & May, Shannon, tide, waterways
Maark Gleeson of Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club has kindly given me details of the Club’s recent trip along the Royal, with notes on the time taken and some useful advice, especially about the tides in Dublin.
Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, Tourism, Water sports activities, Waterways management
Tagged 12th lock, Abbeyshrule, Blanchardsstown, boats, bridge, canal, Clondra, Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland, Liffey, lock gate, lock key, patroller, Poolbeg, Richmond Harbour, Royal Canal, Shannon, tide, waterways, Waterways Ireland, yacht & boat club
It’s a long way from Trinity College, Dublin to the pier at Saleen on Ballylongford Creek, on the south side of the Shannon Estuary. But the college owned large amounts of land in the area, including bogs, and turf was one of the cargoes exported from Ballylongford. There was a battery on Carrig Island at the mouth of the creek and a Coast Guard Station at Saleen Pier, which was built by the Commissioners for the Improvement of the Navigation of the Shannon. Read more about Saleen here.
Posted in Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Scenery, shannon estuary, Steamers, The fishing trade, The turf trade, Water sports activities
Tagged Ballylongford, battery, boats, bog, bollard, Carrig Island, Coast Guard, Commissioners, Front Square, goat, Ireland, jetties, Kerry, Kilrush, Limerick, lost, Operations, potatoes, Saleen, Saleen Pier, Shannon, slipway, Tarbert, TCD, tide, Trinity College Dublin, turf, vessels, water level, withy
Irish waterways history