Survey Data
Reg No
30402722
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Canal (section of)
Date
1845 - 1850
Coordinates
114813, 255662
Date Recorded
16/09/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Length of disused canal cutting, built c.1848. Largely cut into bedrock without any trace of lining along its length. Bridged at northern end by single-arch road bridge. Remains of dressed limestone lock, never completed, to south and having single set of gate recesses, snecked stone walls with occasional corbels and some limestone coping stones, and curved ends. Further feature located to south of basin is what was possibly intended to be used as aqueduct, comprising snecked limestone walls, ashlar voussoirs and dressed string course, located over small river.
Appraisal
This canal was built in 1848 for Lord Ardilaun, owner of the Ashford Castle estate. It was designed many years previously by Alexander Nimmo. It was however to prove to be an unsuccessful endeavour as the site was unsuitable and the canal drained very easily and was hence never finished. It now stands as a testament to the economic power once wielded by the ruling classes of nineteenth-century Ireland and as a reminder that nature is capable of overturning even the best-laid plans.