Grand Canal

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

The Eighth Lock forms is one of a group of locks in Ballyfermot, designed to raise or lower boats between different levels on the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal is the southernmost of a pair of canals that encircles Dublin city, and provides a waterway connection between Dublin's River Liffey and the River Shannon. 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. The canal network developed in the late eighteenth century and encouraged the commercialisation and industrialisation of the country. It is of considerable technical and engineering interest and is constructed of good quality stone and early timber lock gates that retain their early mechanisms.