42nd Lock

Canal lock associated with Royal Canal, built c. 1815, consisting of pair of (restored) timber and steel breast gates with timber footboards and balance beams. Set within ashlar limestone lock chamber with ashlar limestone capstones having bevelled edges. Associated lock keeper's house (13401819) to the west. Located to the southwest of Killashee. Canal now dry.

This well-built canal lock that forms part of an interesting group of structures associated with the Royal Canal at Ards. The quality of the ashlar limestone construction of the lock walls is indicative of the grandiose ambitions of the Directors General of Inland Navigation (who took over responsibility for the Royal Canal following the dissolution of the Royal Canal Company in 1813) during the first decades of the nineteenth century. This lock has been designed and constructed with a high level of expertise indicating the importance of its role in the past and it represents an important element of the architectural and industrial heritage of County Longford. It forms part of a coherent scheme along with Ards Bridge (13401817) to the south and the associated lock keeper’s house (13401819) adjacent to the west, forming a group of canal structures that 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.