11th - 12th June 2012. The Barrow Line to Fisherstown. Live music at The Fisherman's Thatched Inn.

Glorious weather today. There are a lot of horses watching us cruise down the Barrow Line.

At staircase lock 24 there is a bridge over part of the lower chamber.

In Monasterevin the old wharves have been opened up again to make very attractive moorings at Bell Harbour.

The lift bridge in Monasterevin is always operated by the lockkeeper.

We have now completed 14 miles of the Barrow line so we are half way to Athy. We had hoped to carry on there to join the River Barrow, but the lockkeeper has told us that it is currently closed to navigation, due to high water levels. We are crossing the Barrow on the aqueduct in Monasterevin, and can see the problem! This aqueduct was built in the 1820s.

Before the lock at Monasterevin the canal turns left as we pass the old entrance to the Mountmellick Branch, which is now derelict. It too was constructed in the 1820s, and originally it was to continue to the Castlecomer coal fields. However it was only ever 11 miles long and finished at Mountmellick. It was officially closed to navigation in 1960.

We met a weed cutter, which is a weird looking, but efficient craft. There is very little weed left on this stretch.

The Barrow Line is generally more attractive than The Grand Canal, but is still a bit too straight at times!

Fisherstown Bridge is being repointed at the moment. This work on the canals is contracted out by Waterways Ireland, though all work around the locks is done by the lockkeepers.

We moored at Fisherstown, just through the bridge. It is a delightful place, with a few charming houses along the road, on the other side of the bridge.

After seven years of hard work, the front fender was in need of repair, so Sally again used the coir rope found earlier this summer.

Once it has been painted with blacking, then its renovation is complete.It can go back once it is dry!

We walked down to see the River Barrow, which is about three quarters of a mile from Fisherstown bridge. On Monday evening it was nearly up to the old road. There used to be a bridge over the river here, which is shown in the 1999 edition of the Ireland's Inland Waterways canal guide for the Barrow Line. However, we are told by the pub landlord that it was taken down in about 1540. The local shop and garage shown have also gone, but comparatively recently. They were there until only about ten years ago. He said that there's out of date, and also out of date!

Next day John and Brigitte arrived, and we went down to the river again in the evening, to see how much water there was. This picture was taken from the same spot! The level had gone down quite a lot so we are hoping it will soon be open to navigation.

That night we went up to the pub, the Fisherman's Thatched Inn for music, which began at ten-ish. It was actually 10.40 when it started.

There is music here every Tuesday night and we can certainly recommend a visit. As well as the musicians, two other men sang Irish songs. They each dedicated the songs to their new friends from Norfolk, which made us feel very welcome.

We have never visited a more interesting pub, with so much memorabilia to see. It was Old Sean, the landlord's, 71st birthday, so at midnight the chocolate cake was brought out for everyone to share, and drinks were on the house! It was a great evening!

Andy and John particularly enjoyed the Guiness, while Brigitte and Sally  just had a good time.

9th - 10th June 2012. The Grand Canal to Lowtown then on to the Barrow Line.

As the rain and wind have stopped for the moment, we are carrying straight on across the Bog of Allen.

Away to the south of the canal the peat bog stretches as far as the eye can see. The method here is to scrape the peat off the bog, rather than to cut it, and then leave it to dry before taking it to the Power Station. These piles of peat were covered with plastic sheeting, but the wind has not done them any good!

Lock 19 is a long way from the last lock. As these locks were built for the 60 foot M Barges, it is still quite a tight fit for The Puzzler.

It is close at the bows.

And also at the stern!

We liked this grey pony, which was tethered beside the canal.  He was very interested in us as we passed him.

At Lowtown we had to breast up to the "harbour hoggers" who were moored on the pumpout station. This is a new pumpout which is not shown on any charts.

As we turn on to the Barrow Line we find where all the narrowboats are on the canals! Until now we have hardly seen any at all.

We moored soon after the junction, and walked along the road to look at the Old Barrow Line, which runs parallel to the New Barrow Line for a couple of miles. Beyond the bridge can be seen a pub, which is supporting Ireland's hopes in football's Euro 2012!

We have seen a few trotting ponies near the canal. This one is just above lock 20.

It is always fun to fill an empty lock, with all gate paddles open.

 As we carry on along the Barrow Line, the first stretch is wooded, with practically all the trees being ash trees. The countryside then opens out, and the crop here, in the field behind the cows, is barley.This is the first time we have seen any crop in Ireland, except for grass.

The Barrow Line is less isolated than the Grand Canal, and we have passed various houses since Lowtown. Rathangan was the first village we reached.

Lock 23 is another staircase lock. Andy and The Puzzler came through into the second chamber to find this horse, which had been brought here for a bucket of water, beside the lock. The saying "You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" was true here!

 
About a month ago, Sally found some discarded coir rope. She has been putting it to good use by making some fenders. Being  made from coir, the fenders will float if they are ripped off in locks by anyone trying to squeeze through one gate with fenders down!!

4th - 8th June 2012. Continuing along the Grand Canal. Daingean and Edenberry.

We sailed on to Daingean, arriving there in torrential rain. It was nice to find a mooring but being under a wall in the centre of a small town for the night did not appeal to us, so we moved on later.

These are the first barges we have seen on the Grand Canal since Shannon Harbour. There are very few boats about at all. We have seen one boat sailing on each day on this canal so far.

We moored about a mile from Daingean. It was a very pleasant mooring, but definitely a plank one!

A lot of turf has been cut, and is now drying on this peat bog away to our right. 

Along this section the canal runs straight on, quite close to the bog. After this straight section there are trees along both sides of the canal, so we do not know how far the bog goes.

This emergency stop chamber was constructed over ten years ago. The canal guide tells us "Should a breach occur in the future, the stop-gates are designed to close automatically, limiting the loss of water from the canal and the damage to the embankments". This seems a really good idea. However the gates are chained to the wall on the far side!

Ahead of us is the junction with the Edenderry Branch, which goes for about a mile to the centre of the town.

The ducks are certainly looked after well in the harbour, with their own floating house. Mother duck and her family live here.

There is hardly room for everyone else on the other platform!

There was not much spare space to turn before leaving the harbour. We had to wait for a weed cutter to finish his run into the harbour before we could leave. There is certainly a lot of weed about on the Grand Canal. We are not having much trouble with the weed as our engine does not use canal water for cooling, as a lot of engines do. We are also less deep in the water than most boats here, as we draw less than two feet.

Mooring along the Grand Canal, except at recognised moorings, can be difficult, as the bed of the canal is usually shallower towards the banks. However, we found deep water right up to the canal bank, just before Blundell aqueduct, where the canal crosses the road to Rathangan. This is known locally as "The Tunnel". We stayed here for two days, while it rained continuously and the wind was at least force 5-6!

2nd - 4th June. The Grand Canal. Bord Na Mona railway. Pollagh.

We are carrying on along the Grand Canal, which does not have many corners in it! Here we are crossing the Macartney Aqueduct over the Silver River.

 Silver River stretches away down below us.

The Bord Na Mona railway swingbridge is open today for the passage of boats. Bord Na Mona, which is a government based energy company, was founded in 1946 to oversee further development of the bogs and utilisation of peat. At that time it was the main source of employment in this area and it still collects the peat from the bog by railway.

This is a narrow gauge railway and apparently it is fitted together in sections, like a model railway track, to carry the trains across whichever part of the bog is currently in use.

This is a particularly straight section of the canal.

The broom is in full flower at the moment.

The approach to Pollagh is attractive, with the village mooring just through the bridge. St Mary's Church in Pollagh was built in 1907 using locally produced yellow brick. It has a famous altar, made from 4000 year old bog yew, which was extracted from the Bog of Allen. It attracts international visitors, but, sadly, it was closed while we were there.

This turf cutter, close to our mooring, was carved from 3-4000 year old bog oak and is mounted on a plinth made from traditional yellow Pollagh brick. The Grand Canal was very important for the transportation of these bricks, particularly to Dublin.

The canal bridges are in excellent condition.

We sailed on along the canal and through Tullamore, where the railway crosses the canal. We saw a "cat on a hot tin roof"!

The lock cottage at lock 26 was particularly attractive.

This is the machine used to dredge the canal, but he is having a rest today, as it is Bank Holiday Monday!

Where the track by the canal is narrow, the dredged mud and weeds are put as extra puddling along the edge of the canal. It does not look very good, but it creates a deep centre channel for cruising, with no weed for now, which is always good.

As we carry on across Ireland, the scenery is varied, with flat countryside stretching away to our left at one point.

Five minutes later it is quite different, with an avenue of trees ahead of us.

Each lockkeeper works us through a few locks, then calls ahead to make sure that the next man is ready for us. We can see Jimmy's van waiting for us at lock 21. This system failed us a few locks ago, as one lockkeeper was strimming his grass and did not hear the phone. We had to work two locks ourselves - what a hardship! One lockkeeper told me that it was his job to work the locks, and he was glad to have a job.

Soon after lock 21 we stopped near the old junction with the Kilbeggan Branch at Ballycommon hamlet. The entrance was dammed in 1961 and the canal was allowed to dry out.

It has since become overgrown with young trees but the towpath is still walkable and is well maintained.