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Waterways in County Kildare

Towpath Trails: the Walker's Guide

Introduction | The Barrow Line | The Grand Canal | The Royal Canal | Waterways Map

The Grand Canal

Grand Canal SwanThe 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.

Grand Canal Routes
  1. Hazelhatch to Sallins, 8 miles, 13 km

  2. Sallins to Robertstown 7.25 km, 11 km

  3. Robertstown to Edenderry 13 miles, 21 km

  4. Naas Branch-Sallins to Leinster Aqueduct Naas 3.5 miles, 5.5km

  5. Corbally Branch 4.5 miles, 7.25 km

  6. The Milltown Feeder 5 miles, 8 km
A Brief History

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.