canal (section of)

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.

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.