This route takes
you to Lowtown
Junction, a triangular link between the main line of the Grand
Canal which continues west and the beginning of the 28 mile Barrow
branch of the canal. Lowtown once served the canal system as a
stables for barge horses and as a coal yard. Today it is an inland
dockyard. There, distant from any town, is a place of industry
and activity within an island of canal links.
Pleasure boats of all shapes and sixes lie moored to either bank.
In summer their number will be less with the craft having departed
for cruises on the canal system but in winter the marina echoes
to the sound of generators, angle-grinders and drills as boat
owners snatch hours at the weekend to prepare their craft for
another season’s cruising.
Cross
Fenton’s bridge if you want to take a long look at the boating
activity and perhaps enjoy a chat with a crew setting out for
some distant point. Continue your walk by returning over Fenton’s
bridge to the north bank of the main line of the canal. The second
canal junction which you pass as you leave Lowtown is another
link to the Barrow line. The walk passes by a neat culvert over
the clear waters of the River Slate - an important bogland drainage
stream. The track continues under Bond Bridge on the Allenwood
- Kilmeague road where the gravel laneway gives way to the grassy
bank. Locals have installed seating and planted trees along the
route - a gesture which says ‘welcome’ to the passing
walker.
The
canal now closes with the Prosperous - Edenderry road as a curiously
angled bridge looms ahead. This is known locally as the skew bridge
(pronounced by locals as ‘Scow’).
