| Royal Canal An Chanáil Ríoga | |
|---|---|
 Royal Canal from D'Arcy's bridge, County Westmeath | |
 | |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 145 km (90 miles) |
| Maximumboat beam | 13 ft 3 in (4.04 m) (originally 13 ft 3 in or 4.04 m) (narrowest lock No.17) |
| Locks | 46 |
| Status | Open |
| Navigation authority | Waterways Ireland |
| History | |
| Construction began | May 1790[1] |
| Date completed | 1817 |
| Date closed | 1961 |
| Date restored | 2010 |
| Geography | |
| Start point | Spencer Dock, Dublin (originally Broadstone) (Broadstone filled in) |
| End point | Cloondara (Cloondara connects to the River Shannon (at Termonbarry) via the River Camlin) |
| Branch(es) | Longford Town |
| Connects to | River Shannon |
TheRoyal Canal (Irish:An Chanáil Ríoga) is acanal originally built for freight and passenger transportation from Dublin toLongford in Ireland. It is one of two canals from Dublin to theRiver Shannon and was built in direct competition to theGrand Canal. The canal fell into disrepair in the late twentieth century, but much of it has since been restored for navigation. The length of the canal to theRiver Shannon was reopened on 1 October 2010, but a final spur branch, to Longford Town, remains closed.
| Royal Canal Docks Act 1792 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for enabling the Royal Canal Company to make Docks on the North Side of the River Liffey, under certain Conditions. |
| Citation | 32 Geo. 3. c. 26 (I) |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 18 April 1792 |
In 1755, Thomas Williams and John Cooley made a survey to find a suitable route for a man-made waterway across north Leinster from Dublin to the Shannon. They originally planned to use a series of rivers and lakes, including the Boyne, Blackwater, Deel, Yellow, Camlin and Inny and Lough Derravaragh. A disgruntled director of the Grand Canal Company sought support to build a canal from Dublin to Cloondara, on the Shannon in West County Longford.
Work on this massive project commenced in May 1790 at Cross Guns Bridge,Phibsborough in a westerly direction towardsAshtown.[1] This is commemorated in the plaque beneath the keystone of Ranelagh Bridge. Twenty-seven years later, in 1817, the canal reached the Shannon.[2] The total cost of construction was £1,421,954.[3] Building was unexpectedly expensive, and the project was riven with problems; in 1794 the Royal Canal Company was declared bankrupt. The Duke of Leinster, a board member, insisted that the new waterway take in his local town ofMaynooth. The builders had to deviate from the planned route; this necessitated the construction of a 'deep sinking' between Blanchardstown and Clonsilla. The diversion also called for the building of the Ryewater Aqueduct, at Leixlip.[4]
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In 1796, the canal reachedKilcock and trade commenced.[2] Two passenger boats, theCamden and thePhelan, went into service on 2 December 1796, with a fare of1s 1d (first class cabin) or 6d (second class cabin) from Dublin to Leixlip, a journey of approximately 20 km.[2] This was much cheaper than thestagecoach at the time, which cost 8s 8d for the same journey.[2] Passengers also had the option to dine on board the canal passenger boat, whereas this was not possible on the coach. This made a slow canal journey such as the 12 hours toMullingar more manageable.[2]
In the early 1800s, the canal supplied water toDublin Corporation for itsnorth city water supply, which could make the water level drop on the canal at times, especially during dry summers.[5] To counteract this, a small reservoir named after KingGeorge III was opened in the north inner city in 1809, paid for by Dublin Corporation, which was fed from the 1 km-long spur that came off the Royal Canal to meetBroadstone railway station nearPhibsborough.[6] The ground alone, covering merely an acre, cost the Corporation£1,052 9s 2d.[5] The reservoir still exists, named theBlessington Street Basin, although the spur has been filled in.
In the late 1820s, as the quality ofroads in Ireland improved, road carriers such asBianconi's Coach and Car Service began to compete with the canal as an affordable alternative public transport option.[2]
By the 1830s the canal carried 80,000 tons of freight and 40,000 passengers a year.
In 1843, while walking with his wife along the Royal Canal, SirWilliam Rowan Hamilton realised the formula forquaternions and carved his initial thoughts into a stone on theBroom Bridge over the canal. The annualHamilton Walk commemorates this event.
In July 1845, theMidland Great Western Railway company was formed by a parliamentary act, authorising it to build a railway from Dublin toMullingar andLongford and to purchase the Royal Canal,[7] which they did that same year. They considered draining the canal and building a new railway along its bed; however they were "legally obliged to operate the canal as a separate transport system and so it (the Royal Canal) continued to operate".[5] The train line was eventually laid adjacent to the canal, and the two run side by side from Dublin to Mullingar.
15 passengers, including two children, were drowned inan incident on the canal, nearClonsilla, Dublin in 1845.[8] At approximately 4:00pm on 25 November that year, the Royal Canal Company passenger boatLongford, on its way from Dublin to Longford, was steered accidentally into thebank, turned over (with the weight of 54 passengers suddenly thrown to one side), and capsized.[9][10]
In May 1847, during theGreat Famine, tenants of MajorDenis Mahon left hisStrokestown Park estate in County Roscommon. The tenants, who would become known locally as the "Missing 1,490", had been offered a choice of emigration with assisted passage, starvation on their blighted potato farms or a place in the local workhouse. Weakened by starvation, the 1,490 walked for days along the towpaths of the Royal Canal to Dublin, where they were put on boats to Liverpool, and from there travelled toGrosse-Île, Quebec on four "coffin ships" – cargo vessels that were also, ironically, loaded with grain from Ireland,[citation needed] and were unsuitable for passengers. It is estimated that half of the emigrants died before reaching Grosse-Île. This was the largest single exodus of tenants during the Famine. Mahon was assassinated in November 1847, after news reached Roscommon about the fate of his former tenants. An annual walk on the canal banks commemorates these events.
Competition from the railways gradually eroded the canal's business, and by the 1880s annual tonnage was down to about 30,000 and the passenger traffic had all but disappeared.
The canal had a brief resurgence duringWorld War II, when horses and barges returned.CIÉ took over the canal in 1944. As rail and road traffic increased, the canal fell into disuse. In 1951, one boat was left using the canal commercially, which ceased in July of that year.[5] A decade later, in 1961, CIÉ closed the navigation on the canal, and placed a dam across it "three miles west of Mullingar, thereby cutting off the main water supply to the western section".[5]
In 1974, volunteers from the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland formed the Royal Canal Amenity Group to save the canal. By 1990 they had 74 kilometres of canal, from the 12th lock in Blanchardstown to Mullingar, open again for navigation. In 2000, the canal was taken over by Waterways Ireland, a cross-border body charged with administering Ireland's inland navigations. On 1 October 2010, the whole length of the canal was formally reopened.
Since the early 19th century, the canal has been maintained by eight successive agencies: the Royal Canal Company, the Commissioners of Inland Navigation, the New Royal Canal Company,Midland Great Western Railway Company,Great Southern Railways,CIÉ, the Office of Public Works (from 1986), and Waterways Ireland, in addition to the restoration and maintenance by the volunteers of the Royal Canal Amenity Group.
The canal passes throughMaynooth,Kilcock,Enfield,Longwood,Mullingar andBallymahon and has a spur toLongford. The total length of the main navigation is 145 kilometres (90 mi), and the system has 46 locks. There is one main feeder (fromLough Owel), which enters the canal at Mullingar.
The Royal Canal was originally planned to terminate in Dublin atBroadstone, to serve the then fashionable area of residence, as well asKing's Inns and the nearby markets, but it was extended so that now, at the Dublin end, the canal reaches the Liffey through a wide sequence of dock and locks at Spencer Dock, with a final sea lock to manage access to the river and sea.
The Dublin – Mullingar railway line was built alongside the canal for much of its length. The meandering route of the canal resulted in many speed-limiting curves on the railway. The canal was bought by theMidland Great Western Railway to provide a route to the West of Ireland, the original plan being to close the canal and build the railway along its bed.
The canal travels across one of the major junctions on theM50 where it meets theN3, in a specially constructed aqueduct.
TodayWaterways Ireland is responsible for the canal, and it was under their stewardship, in association with the Royal Canal Amenity Group, that the Royal Canal was officially reopened from Dublin to the Shannon on 2 October 2010.[11] Access points currently exist nearLeixlip and atMaynooth,Enfield, Thomastown, Mullingar, Ballinea Bridge andBallynacargy.
In 2006, a commemoration marker was erected at Piper's Boreen, Mullingar, to mark the 200 years since the canal reached Mullingar in 1806.
The Royal Canal Way is a 144-kilometre (89-mile)long-distance trail that follows the towpath of the canal fromAshtown, Dublin toCloondara, County Longford.[12] It is typically completed in six days.[12] It is designated as aNational Waymarked Trail by the National Trails Office of theIrish Sports Council and is managed by Waterways Ireland.[12] In 2015, Dublin City Council began extending the walking and cycling route along the Royal Canal from Ashtown toSheriff Street Upper. The Royal Canal Way connects with theWestmeath Way west of Mullingar and will eventually form the eastern end of theDublin-Galway Greenway, the final part ofEuroVelo Route 2, a cycling path from Moscow across Europe toGalway.[13][14][15][16]
TheRoyal Canal Greenway is thegreenway encompassing the Royal Canal Way betweenMaynooth and Cloondara, with a branch toLongford. It was launched in March 2021.[17][18]
The Royal Canal was immortalised in verse byBrendan Behan inThe Auld Triangle. A monument featuring Behan sitting on a bench was erected on the canal bank at Binn's Bridge inDrumcondra in 2004.
Royal Canal boatmen believed the 13th lock at Deey Bridge, between Leixlip and Maynooth, was haunted. This tale became the subject of a poem byArthur Griffith,The Spooks of the Thirteenth Lock, which in turn inspired the name of the bandThe Spook of the Thirteenth Lock.[19]
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