Visit to Limerick Navigation – Oct 1st to 4th 2010

English waterways enthusiasts to visit Limerick Navigation

On the first weekend of October, a group of waterways enthusiasts will be visiting Limerick and Clare to walk the route of the old Limerick Navigation.
The visit is being coordinated by the O’Briensbridge Community Group; it may be the first time that a group of overseas tourists has come specifically to see the Limerick Navigation. However, sections of the towing-path, which was built for horses towing boats, are popular with walkers, some of whom may not realise that they were all part of the same navigation.
Before Ardnacrusha was built, the Limerick Navigation was the waterway that linked Limerick to Killaloe and from there, via the Shannon and the Grand Canal, to Dublin. Daniel O’Connell used it to get to Westminster; turf boats from Macnab’s Bog (Montpelier) used it to supply the steam engine at the Limerick Distillery; it was also part of the great trade route, linking Loop Head to Liverpool, that established the Irish livestock industry.
The Navigation had five sections: the Park Canal from Lock Quay to the Shannon, the river up to Plassey, the canal from there to Errina bypassing the Falls of Doonass, the river from Errina through O’Briensbridge and finally a short canal through Killaloe. Traffic ceased once Ardnacrusha was built, although boats continued to use the old canal harbour, entering it from the Abbey River.
As with many Irish canals, completion of the Limerick Navigation took a lot longer than was planned, but its builders did have to cope with very difficult conditions: bogs, rocks, strong currents and major changes of water level between summer and winter. Over the years, various solutions were adopted to overcome these difficulties, and their legacy is still to be seen in the rich collection of waterways artefacts that has attracted the visiting group.
The visitors are members of the Inland Waterways Protection Society (IWPS), a voluntary group whose members spent over forty years restoring the canal and basin at Bugsworth in the Peak District, south-east of Manchester. Bugsworth was a major centre for producing burnt lime; a tramway linked the pits and kilns with the basin, which was one of the largest inland ports on the English narrow canals. IWPS members started restoration with shovels, knee deep in the mud, and progressed to using hired machinery; in later years, they have worked with British Waterways, but volunteers still do much maintenance work around the site.
Each year the IWPS organises a weekend away to visit other waterways, but their visit to the Limerick Navigation will be their first outside Britain. The weekend begins at 7.30pm on Friday 1 October in the Mill Bar in O’Briensbridge. Mick Murtagh will be welcoming the visitors and describing the work done by the Community Association in creating walks and repairing bridges along the towing-paths. Ian Edgar will show photos of the IWPS’s achievements at Bugsworth; many of them feature large amounts of mud. Finally, Brian J Goggin of Castleconnell will describe the history of the Limerick navigation, including its heyday in the 1830s when it was the scene of major innovations in steam transport for passengers and freight.
“This gives us an opportunity to learn from what other people are doing, as well as to show what we have here,” said Mick Murtagh
On Saturday the group will be walking from the sea lock at Sarsfield Bridge up to the canal harbour at Lock Quay and then on through Plassey, Gillogue and Clonlara to O’Briensbridge. On the way they’ll be able to see the locks, the milestones, the characteristic small bridges, the remains of the mills and the Black Bridge built for the towing horses to cross the Shannon.
On Sunday morning they’ll be walking upriver, past the unique capstan above the bridge at O’Briensbridge, to look at Parteen Villa Weir. Then they’ll drive to Killaloe to see the upper end of the navigation including the patent slip (by kind permission of Waterways Ireland), the marble mill, the cranes, the lock and the Pierhead from which the steamers set off up Lough Derg. Sunday afternoon may include a boat trip; the programme is dependent on the weather.
On Monday the group will be visiting Ardnacrusha, by kind permission of the ESB. For most people Ardnacrusha is a power station, but for those interested in canals its most important feature is the lock through which boats pass. The deepest lock in Britain is nineteen feet; Ardnacrusha is one hundred feet, and it is likely to be a highlight of the visit. It will also be the final event of the trip, although some of the group will be staying on for a few days to visit other attractions in the region.
Brian J Goggin
Stradbally North, Castleconnell, Co Limerick
Tel 061 377 406
Email bjg@wordwrights.ie
Web http://irishwaterwayshistory.com
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