weir, sluice/sluice gate

Weir in the River Shannon, built c. 1845. Constructed of ashlar limestone. Altered c. 1950, surmounted by walkway with metal railings providing access to concrete and dressed limestone sluice gates with U-cutwaters and steel-framed gates. Iron tram on rails to walkway over sluice gates. Located to the south of Termonbarry Bridge (13401301) to the northwest of Cloondara, joining County Longford with County Roscommon. Spans border between Leinster and Connaught.

This stone built weir shows evidence of skilled craftsmanship in the cutting and laying of the ashlar limestone masonry, and engineering skill in the building of a weir across such a broad expanse of water. It was probably originally built as part of the extensive works carried out by the Shannon Navigation Commissioners during the mid-nineteenth century, and at the same time as Termonbarry Bridge (13401301) to the north was constructed. Now it has the addition of a railed walkway to allow access to the mid twentieth-century sluice gates. The sluice gates, which provide such a notable feature in the landscape, are designed to regulate the water levels in the Shannon Navigation. The present weir was built on the site of an earlier fish weir (Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map 1838), and the approximate site of a fording point of the Shannon from Medieval times. Works were proposed in 1908 to reduce the height of the weir as it was flooding the surrounding farmland but were never carried out as this would have destroyed the navigation (Parliamentary question).