Work
began on the Grand Canal in 1756. In fact the first sods were
turned near the starting point of our walk at Hazelhatch. However
engineering difficulties and mistakes by the builders in the early
stages meant that progress was slow - by 1763 only ten miles and
three locks had been built. The tempo picked up during the last
twenty years of the 18th century and although thwarted many times
by the difficulties of engineering a canal across the Bog of Allen
the canal company managed to make the link with the Shannon in
1803. The important branch to the river Barrow had been completed
a decade earlier. Passenger boats used the waterway until the
1850s and cargo boats until 1960. The big, broad - beamed barges
laden with porter; coal or grain are still a living memory for
many. After their closure to commercial traffic in 1960 the future
for the waterways seemed bleak (although the Grand, unlike the
Royal, remained navigable). However the vision of the inland waterways
activists encouraged a more enlightened attitude by Government.
Branches
were restored (for example, Naas in 1987) and the canal environment
improved - a progress which continues as the role of the canals
for water and landbased recreation and tourism is increasingly
valued as a national asset as well as a source of amenity for
canalside communities. The main line of the Grand Canal is 82
miles length from Dublin to the Shannon of which twenty - five
lie within Co. Kildare. Our description gives guidance notes and
historical commentary for this section of the Grand Canal as well
as some short stretches at the beginning and the end in Cos. Dublin
and Offaly. The description also covers the 28 mile Barrow branch
from Lowtown in mid-Kildare to Athy as well as the Naas branch
and the Milltown feeder.
