Tag Archives: vessels

Crovraghan continuity

The cattle-carrying lighters and other interesting boats at Crovraghan.

Rosscliff

Rosscliff is a cattle port on the Fergus estuary. It is not clear whether this is the location of the quay referred to by Lewis and the Parliamentary Gazetteer in their entries for Ballinacally (Ballynacally).

Mountshannon seaplanes

Nice to see I’m not the only one who wonders how this proposed operation will succeed. I’d like to have a look at the business plan ….

Location

Page 84 of Ruth Delany’s The Shannon Navigation (Lilliput Press 2008) has a drawing with this caption:

A drawing by Edward Jones which it is thought might depict the Shannon Commission’s survey in progress at an unidentified location possibly down the Shannon Estuary. (Courtesy of the Society of Antiquaries of London)

I suggest that the drawing is of Saleen, on the Ballylongford Creek in Co Kerry, on the lower reaches of the Shannon Estuary. The first word written on the  drawing looks like “Sawline”, which might be a version of “Saleen”.

Dublin saunter

I’ve made some changes to my pages about (parts of) the waterways in Dublin. Essentially, I’ve suggested a walking route that would take you:

  • from Connolly Station to Newcomen Bridge and Lock 1 on the Royal Canal, then up the Royal as far as Lock 5 (with possibilities for refreshment)
  • back a bit to the junction with the abandoned Broadstone Line, then down that line to Constitution Hill
  • from there to the Liffey quays, with some thoughts on the Guinness Liffey barges, then up Steevens Lane and James’s Street to Echlin Street and the filled-in Grand Canal Harbour
  • around the harbour before ending in the Guinness Storehouse.

More information here or go directly to this page.

Fry’s Irish delight

Railway heads may wish to boogie on over to this site to look at a fifteen-minute video of the Fry Model Railway, which is to be evicted from its home at Malahide Castle.

The National Museum thinks saving the Fry isn’t really quite its sort of thing; no doubt it’s busy with its collection of frocks. It appears to possess one model steam railway locomotive; it has no steam engine, no diesel engine, but lots of stamps and coins.

The Fry includes some waterways items.

 

WI and residential boaters

Here is an opinion piece about Waterways Ireland’s letter to the residential boaters (live-aboards) at Sallins on the Grand Canal.

Intricate channels and interesting boats

Another of the quays on the west side of the Fergus estuary: Lackannashinnagh, near Killadysert (Kildysert).

Up the creek

Ballycorick Bridge is north of Ballynacally, on the western side of the Fergus estuary in Co Clare. There is a small quay just below the bridge; Samuel Lewis mentioned the trade to that quay in 1837, and it stayed in use until the 1950s.

Diesel, gas, turf or battery?

The Irish Times tells us that Endesa, a Spanish company, intends to sell its Irish operations. They include two water-side sites, at Great Island in Co Wexford and Tarbert in Co Kerry, as well as a near miss in Rhode, Co Offaly, and a fourth in Co Mayo.

The Great Island power station on the Suir opposite Cheekpoint

The Irish Times says that Endesa had intended to change Great Island and Tarbert from diesel to natural gas. The Tarbert project received planning permission in December 2010; the Irish Times report was probably inaccurate in suggesting that a submarine cable from Tarbert would supply the ESB generating station at Moneypoint which, being a generating station, would be able to generate its own.

The old Tarbert power station

However, I had heard that Tarbert might have received its natural gas from the proposed storage plant at Ballylongford, near Saleen Pier whence Trinity College turf was sent to Limerick. A pipe from Tarbert might have supplied Moneypoint. I don’t think construction has yet begun.

The old Tarbert power station was built on the site of the Tarbert battery, the largest of the six Shannon estuary batteries and the only one to mount seven guns.