Survey Data
Reg No
13313003
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Lock
In Use As
Lock
Date
1810 - 1820
Coordinates
210909, 264614
Date Recorded
07/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Canal lock associated with Royal Canal, built c. 1815, consisting of pair of timber and steel breast gates with timber footboards and balance beams. Set within ashlar limestone lock chamber with ashlar limestone capstones with bevelled edges. Timber mooring post at intervals between gates. Associated lock keeper's house (13313001) to the west. Located to the south of Coolnahinch Bridge (13313002) and to the northwest of Keenagh.
Appraisal
This well-built canal lock that forms part of an important group of structures associated with the Royal Canal at Coolnahinch. The quality of the ashlar limestone is indicative of the grandiose ambitions of the Directors General of Inland Navigation (who took over responsibility for the Royal Canal following the dissolution of the Royal Canal Company in 1813) during the early part of the nineteenth century. This lock has been designed and constructed with a high level of expertise indicating the importance of its role in the past and it represents an important element of the architectural and industrial heritage of County Longford. It forms part of a coherent scheme along with Coolnahinch Bridge (13313002) and the associated lock keeper’s house (13313001), forming a group of canal structures that serves as an important reminder of the heyday of the canal building era prior to the demise of this transport system in the mid-to-late nineteenth century.