Here are photographs of Waterways Ireland’s latest workboat, Inis Cealtra. The photos were taken at Portumna, at the head of Lough Derg, after Inis Cealtra, built in Killybegs Co Donegal, had travelled down the west coast, up the Shannon Estuary, through Limerick and then via Ardnacrusha Lock to Lough Derg on the Shannon.
These photos are of details, and are probably for the anoraks; for more general views, see the pics supplied by Waterways Ireland on my general WI workboats page.
Posted in Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations
Tagged boats, Inis Cealtra, Ireland, Limerick, lock, Operations, Shannon, vessels, waterways, Waterways Ireland, workboat
I’ve already written about a Shannon lock at Athlone and a Grand Canal lock at Belmont. Now here’s a page about the sector lock leading into Kilrush marina on the Shannon estuary. Sector locks are relatively rare, but sector gates are being installed as flood defences at Spencer Dock, where the Royal Canal meets the River Liffey in Dublin, and are used at Limehouse lock on the Thames in London.
Interestingly, the Kilrush lock and the associated embankment solved problems that were identified by Commander William Mudge RN, Admiralty surveyor, in 1831: he was one of the three members of the Commission for the Improvement of the Navigation of the Shannon, and at that time the Shannon estuary steamers had to use Cappagh pier, outside Kilrush, because at low tide Kilrush had only a small creek running through it.
Nowadays, inland waterways boats going to sea often head for Kilrush, which is also one of the bases from which dolphin-watching trips are provided. There is a resident school of bottlenose dolphins in the estuary.
Posted in Extant waterways, Irish waterways general, Operations, Steamers
Tagged boats, Charles Wye Williams, dolphins, ferry, Garryowen, Ireland, Kilrush, Limerick, lock, marina, Mudge, Operations, Poulnasherry, Scattery, sector gates, Shannon, steamer, turf, vessels, waterways, West Clare Railway
These are pretty minor additions: a nice Lister-driven wooden boat (towards the bottom of the page), the Holy Island ferry added to the Non-WI workboats and some groups of sailing boats on Lough Derg.
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.
Some people like to do their own thing. Not for them the off-the-shelf mass-produced GRP boat; not the elegant wooden cruiser nor even the conventional barge conversion. They design their boats to meet specific needs, solve specific problems and satisfy their own tastes. Here are some of the results.
I’ve put up a page with photos of some of the smaller traditional boats, mostly fishing boats, used on Irish inland waterways and estuaries. This is by no means a comprehensive account: for that you need the book Traditional Boats of Ireland and its website www.tradboats.ie.
I’ve added a few more photos at the end of my page on wooden boats.
Irish waterways history 