Grand Canal

Canal lock, built c.1775, consisting of two pairs of steel mitre gates with timber footboards and balance beams, set within cut limestone lock chamber with limestone coping and splayed ends. Timber mooring bollards and cast-iron winding mechanisms to north and south tow-paths.

This well-built canal lock, the second lock along the western stretch, forms part of an important group of structures associated with the Grand Canal in Dublin and was located beside Mount Shannon corn mill. The quality of the limestone construction is indicative of the grandiose ambitions of the Grand Canal Company during the latter part of the eighteenth century. This lock was designed and constructed with a high level of expertise indicating the importance of its role in the past and it is an integral part of Dublin’s industrial heritage. Still in use today, it forms part of a group of related structures along the Grand Canal and 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 with the arrival of the railway. This is one of the earlier locks built in Dublin city, as the canal originally terminated at the City Basin off James's Street, and the circular line was only completed in the 1790s.