7th Lock, Royal Canal

Canal lock, built c.1790, as part of Royal Canal. Canal lock comprises two pairs of timber and steel breast gates with timber foot-boards and balance beams. Gates set within tooled limestone ashlar lock chamber with limestone capstones at ground level. Flat-deck railway bridge with steel girder supports and riveted steel parapet to either side carrying Dublin to Sligo railway line over lock.

A well-constructed canal lock dating from the late eighteenth century, forming an interesting juxtaposition with the mid-nineteenth-century railway bridge and of two major developments in Ireland’s infrastructure, the canal system and the railway system. The canal lock forms part of a wider collection of structures associated with the Royal Canal on its journey from Spencer Dock to Longford Town. The lock displays good quality masonry and engineering and remain as reminders of the role of infrastructure in the modernising of Dublin and the country as a whole.