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Cong Canal | |
---|---|
![]() Lock Number 3, The Cong Canal | |
Country | Ireland |
Specifications | |
Length | 6 km (3.7 miles) |
Locks | 3 |
Status | derelict |
History | |
Principal engineer | John McMahon |
Date of act | 1842 |
Construction began | 1848 |
Geography | |
Start point | Lough Corrib |
End point | Lough Mask |
The Cong Canal is a derelict canal in the village of Cong, County Mayo. Ireland. It was abandoned unfinished in 1854 and is popularly known as 'The Dry Canal'.
The Cong Canal was designed to provide a navigable link between Lough Corrib at the village of Cong and Lough Mask, six kilometres to the north. It was part of the large Corrib, Mask and Carra Drainage and Navigation project intended to provide land drainage to the Loughs Corrib, Mask and Carra catchments and open up a navigation from the sea at Galway Bay to those lakes.
The design and construction of the works was carried out by the government organisation known as the Board of Works (also known as The Commissioners of Public Works) over the period 1844 to 1859. Survey work commenced in June 1844 and a report with a proposed design was published in March 1846. [1] This was one of four works of navigation part funded by the Treasury during the famine years (1845 to 1849) in Ireland. The other three were Lough Neagh and the River Bann in County Antrim; the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell Canal linking Lough Erne to the River Shannon across County Leitrim; and Lough Oughter and Lough Gowna in County Cavan. The navigation from the sea at Galway Bay to Lough Corrib and through Lough Corrib was completed as planned.
The navigation work on the Cong Canal, in Lough Mask and on the River Robe was abandoned in 1854 when an instruction issued from the Board "to suspend the execution of all navigation works in this division of the district, and complete only such as were necessary for the regulation of the waters of Lough Mask, for drainage purposes." [2]
The abandoned canal has remained an enigma ever since. The canal was brought to wide public attention in 1872 by the writer William Wilde [3] who coined the name ‘The Dry Canal’. The Board of Works stated that the project was halted because it was proving to be too expensive, that labour had become scarce, and that railways had rendered canals redundant. [4] [5] The local folk memory has retained a different story down through the nearly two centuries since the canal was abandoned: it says that the engineers failed to take account of the cavernous nature of the limestone in the district and when they realized this, the work was halted.
The overall Corrib-Mask project was initially planned as a straightforward drainage and navigation project but, due to the potato famine it was rushed forward as a Famine relief project to provide employment to the starving locals. Significant changes were made to the original proposed design and basic errors were made at the detailed design stage. [6] Full account was not taken of the effect on milling interests of running off flood storage, and to compound this error, flood runoff was then directed into the tailraces of the mills of Cong. Legal action against the Board by the millers was successful. But an even greater error was made at the head waters of the canal where, as the local folk memory correctly records, the Board failed to take account of the cavernous nature of the limestone in the district. The result was that at times of low flow, all flow discharged through underground passages leaving the canal high and dry. Rather that admit its mistake, the Board opted for obfuscation and erected Sluices to essentially block up the channel it had just spent six years excavating through solid rock. The huge rusting sluices may still be seen at Killimor about six kilometres north of Cong village, but they are difficult to access.
The canal has become something of a tourist attraction in the village of Cong, County Mayo where a fully completed lock, the excavated dry channel and other heritage features may still be seen. In summer periods, the entire six kilometre stretch of the canal is completely dry and it is possible to hike along it. In winter, flood waters rush down the channel to an overflow just north of Cong village. The lower one-and-a-half kilometre stretch of the canal at Cong village remains dry at all times.
County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 2022 census.
Lough Corrib is a lake in the west of Ireland. The River Corrib or Galway River connects the lake to the sea at Galway. It is the largest lake within the Republic of Ireland and the second largest on the island of Ireland. It covers 176 km² and lies mostly in County Galway with a small area of its northeast corner in County Mayo.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of owned and rented Government offices and police properties, oversees National Monuments and directly manages some heritage properties, and is the lead State engineering agency, with a special focus on flood risk management. It lies within the remit of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, with functions largely delegated to a Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform with special responsibility for the Office. The OPW has a central role in driving the Government's property asset management reform process, both in respect of its own portfolio and that of the wider public service. The agency was initially known as Board of Works, a title inherited from a preceding body, and this term is still sometimes encountered.
The River Corrib in the west of Ireland flows from Lough Corrib through Galway to Galway Bay. The river is among the shortest in Europe, with only a length of six kilometres from the lough to the Atlantic. It is popular with local whitewater kayakers as well as several rowing clubs and pleasure craft. The depth of this river reaches up to 94 feet.
Lough Mask is a limestone lake of about 83 km2 (32 sq mi) in Counties Mayo and Galway, Ireland, north of Lough Corrib. Lough Mask is the middle of the three lakes, which empty into the Corrib River, through Galway, into Galway Bay. Lough Carra flows into Lough Mask, which discharges through the Cong Canal and underground passages in the limestone bedrock of the district. The flows from the underground passages and the Cong Canal come together at the village of Cong to form the River Cong which flows into Lough Corrib.
The River Bann is the longest river in Northern Ireland, its length, Upper and Lower Bann combined, being 129 km (80 mi). However, the total length of the River Bann, including its path through the 30 km (19 mi) long Lough Neagh is 159 km (99 mi). Another length of the River Bann given is 90 mi. The river winds its way from the southeast corner of Ulster to the northwest coast, pausing in the middle to widen into Lough Neagh. The River Bann catchment has an area of 5,775 km2. The River Bann has a mean discharge rate of 92 m3/s. According to C. Michael Hogan, the Bann River Valley is a settlement area for some of the first human arrivals in Ireland after the most recent glacial retreat.
The South Forty-Foot Drain, also known as the Black Sluice Navigation, is the main channel for the land-drainage of the Black Sluice Level in the Lincolnshire Fens. It lies in eastern England between Guthram Gowt and the Black Sluice pumping station on The Haven, at Boston. The Drain has its origins in the 1630s, when the first scheme to make the Fen land available for agriculture was carried out by the Earl of Lindsey, and has been steadily improved since then. Water drained from the land entered The Haven by gravity at certain states of the tide until 1946, when the Black Sluice pumping station was commissioned.
Cong is a village in County Mayo, Ireland, straddling the border with County Galway. The village is part of a civil parish of the same name.
An Fhairche, or Clonbur in English, is a Gaeltacht village in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland.
Ashford Castle is a medieval and Victorian castle that has been expanded over the centuries and turned into a five star luxury hotel. It is near Cong on the County Mayo–Galway border, on the County Galway side of Lough Corrib, in Ireland. It is a member of the Red Carnation Hotels organisation and was previously owned by the Guinness family.
The River Blackwater or Ulster Blackwater is a river mainly in County Armagh and County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Its source is to the north of Fivemiletown, County Tyrone. The river divides County Armagh from County Tyrone and also divides County Tyrone from County Monaghan, making it part of the border between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
The Archdiocese of Tuam is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in western Ireland. The archdiocese is led by the Archbishop of Tuam, who serves as pastor of the mother church, the Cathedral of the Assumption and Metropolitan of the Metropolitan Province of Tuam. According to tradition, the "Diocese of Tuam" was established in the 6th century by St. Jarlath. The ecclesiastical province, roughly co-extensive with the secular province of Connacht, was created in 1152 by the Synod of Kells.
The Shannon–Erne Waterway is a canal linking the River Shannon in the Republic of Ireland with the River Erne in Northern Ireland. Managed by Waterways Ireland, the canal is 63 km (39 mi) in length, has sixteen locks and runs from Leitrim village in County Leitrim to Upper Lough Erne in County Fermanagh.
The River Cong is a short river of moderate flow in Ireland, primarily in County Mayo but also touching County Galway.
The River Clare is a river in counties Mayo and Galway in Ireland.
Joyce Country is a cultural region in counties Galway and Mayo in Ireland. It is sometimes called Partry, after the former tribal territory of the Partraige, which it largely matches. Part of it falls within the Connacht Gaeltacht. Joyce Country lies on the shores of Lough Mask and Lough Corrib, and includes the Partry Mountains. It is a rural area that includes small settlements such as Clonbur, Cong, Cornamona and Toormakeady. It borders Connemara, to its south and west.
John Killaly (1776–1832) was the most significant Irish canal engineer working originally for the Grand Canal company and later, as an engineer, under the Directors-General of Inland Navigation.
The Partraige were a people of early historic Ireland.