TNC On Tour April 2007 Page1

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Index

Tour 2007

Index

April 2007

Index

1 - Ballinamore to Carrick-On-Shannon - Shannon-Erne Waterway and River Shannon Navigation.

Saturday 31st March 2007

We eventually moved off from Locaboat at 13:55, hoping to get to Leitrim, at the bottom of the Shannon-Erne Waterway (SEW) that night. According to the guide books this is a 6.5 hour trip, so we hoped to clear the bottom lock before the 20:00 switch off time. Not far off the Locaboat quay is a sharp bend with Bridge No 20 over, just before this is the exit of the weir stream, which also leads to a couple of visitor moorings.
Our first lock was the Ballinamore Town Lock No 6, just after the bridge. The electro-hydraulic locks are activated by a smart card and as we have operated them before they came as no surprise. A couple of things we have learnt...the 10 minutes you get to complete your lockage often runs over and will not cut out during a filling / emptying cycle. If you see a boat coming towards you, not far from a lock it is a good plan to go for it, for you are likely to get a freebie. There were other locals tips about not opening the gates completely to cut off that cycle and tales which cannot be mentioned here!
The locks have a pair of bottom gate paddles and a pair of top ground paddles. We found that the quickest and best way to operate the locks going up was to keep Earnest at the back of the chamber (watching the overhanging walkway) and to get both of the two top ground paddles fully up together as the flows were not that turbulent.
After Ballinamore Lock is a wide section, leading to the large weir. Up from the weir are the extensive main Ballinamore visitor moorings with a facilities block. The next river section continues until Ballyduff Lock No 7, after this the navigation passes through an interesting section as its winds its way though Kiltybardan, St Johns and Muckros Loughs. here the navigator has to follow the course, marked by the Erne style of marker posts, consisting of a semicircular disc on a pole. The inside half of which is white and the outside red.
The navigation now follows an improved river section until the summit Castlefore Lock No 8 is met. Beyond here the course passes through the small Lough Marrave and under the new Rossy Foot bridge before the summit village of Keshcarrigan, which we reached at 16:30. This village has a couple of wharf moorings and a finger pontoon visitor moorings. Another of the SEW facilities block is located here. Although we did not stop we will on future occasions, as when with Brian Goggin we sampled the delights of Gerties Bar. There are also a couple of recommended restaurants to try out, the Canal View and Anthias.
Round the corner from Keshcarrigan the waterway opens out into Lough Scur. After the lake widens out it is confusing for the navigator as the maker system changes to the Shannon system, which is the old Admiralty red and black system. The summit rock cutting comes next and after the wides of Drumsleauge Lough the summit Kilclare Lock No 9 is reached. From now on the navigation takes the on the form of a proper canal, with the locks coming in quick succession (well for Ireland!)
We passed out of the bottom Lock, Killarcan No 16 in plenty of time, at 19:00. It was just as well that we did, seeing as all the visitor moorings in Leitrim were taken. We could have gone back to the bottom lock mooring (It is general practice to moor on lock landings overnight), but decided to push on down the Shannon and take our chance at Carrick-On-Shannon.
As you come out of Leitrim the River Shannon comes in from the right, this is navigable up to Lough Allen, for the top section utilising the delightful Lough Allen Canal. Leitrim is suffering from a bad dose of over development beside the waterway, with many new apartments and houses, all set round private marinas.
The Shannon still had a fair flow, still subsiding from the recent floods, so we made good progress in the evening sun. Just past the spindly 1930's concrete Hartley Bridge, the Boyle River comes in from the right, this is navigable up to Lough Key. Finally Carrick came into view and after curving round the large hire boat bases we lined up for Carrick Bridge. We spotted a potential mooring above the bridge, but as there was a fair flow, we decided to go through the bridge, wind and then take stock of the mooring situation. We were in luck and managed to find a suitable length mooring on the old wharf, just below the bridge, mooring up at 20:00. We presume that the lack of hire boats was explained by this being the main changeover day.
Carrick was rather buzzing on this Saturday night, by the time we got out we could not find a table in any of the restaurants we fancied, so went back to the boat with a Chinese takeaway from the establishment near the bridge...predictably we over ordered!

Earnest arrives in Ballinamore.