An Irishman's boating diary
We chat to Ronnie & Mary on their Grand Canal Company Barge 72M.
Join us while we take a look at this old Grand Canal Company barge 72M. All the barges were 60 foot barges and were numbered by the Grand Canal Company. The M signified that it was a motor powered barge rather than a horse drawn barge.
Ronnie & Mary bought their barge when it was just a rusting hull,
in Ringsend Basin in Dublin. Over the next four years they set about making it into a floating home.
So what are the legal requirements for boating in Ireland?
People always ask us if you need a boat license in Ireland? And they also ask us about the law in Ireland about wearing life jackets. In Ireland there are a few common sense rules about the wearing of life jackets especially with children but the boat license thing never caught on here. Check the video for the full details.
We also have rules on holding tanks on boats. Basically it’s illegal to dump any effluent into the rivers or lakes. Which I think is fine too. Thankfully though you can either bring your boat here or rent one with very few restrictions at all.
In this episode we found ourselves out and about the river on a beautiful sunny winter’s day. So we said lets put up the drone and this is the result:
The River Shannon is an easy subject because it constantly delivers magnificent scenery even in the middle of the winter. We left Driftwood in her moorings and took to the road and went to visit some of our favourite moorings along the river. From Athlone in the midlands as far north as the southern end of the mighty Lough Allen. We dropped into Dromod, Carrick on Shannon and many other places along the way too. I see this as a easygoing almost therapeutic type of video! And I hope it will put into that “let’s get prepared for another boating season’ mood! Hope you enjoy it.
There is an old canal & Lock off Lough Key that belonged to the Rockingham Estate. It was used to transport turf (peat) from the bog near Keel lake to the Rockingham Estate. Before I stumbled upon it I never realised that there was a lock chamber on the Rockingham Canal.
In addition to that there is also a small harbour at the end of the canal at what is now the Scouts Jamboree area. The lock measured 48 feet long and 14 feet wide approximately. One thing I noted was that there was no towpath beneath the super ornate bridge.