A new book detailing the routes around some 650km of Irelands canal towpaths would be an excellent companion, writes Sean MacConnell
There was once a man who worked in The Irish Times who fitted a sail to his bicycle and literally used to tack into work. Sometimes, when he was late, he would claim he was becalmed or the winds were not in his favour.
When first handed this book to review I was very taken by the subtitle, A Guide to Cycling Ireland's Waterways, and it brought to mind this unique man who seemed to have invented machines that are now commonplace on Irish beaches.
But Towpath Tours by John Dunne is a very sensible book and one which will find its way into the panniers of many cyclists in the future and indeed into the rucksacks of Irish walkers.
He has managed to pull together a unique guide book to our canal system and the best thing about it is that John Dunne has suffered every bump and hollow of the great canal walkways and banks to ensure as much accuracy as is possible.
But he has gone a step further than that. He has taken a decent and well researched look not just at the canal but the environment and landscape around the waterways, which were so cruelly neglected from the 1960s until very recently.
As an avid reader of walking books, I am horrified at the lack of such an holistic approach - to the mountains in particular. Some writers ignore ancient monuments, geographic features and, almost to a man or woman, the flora and fauna. The guide with its 29 tours along the banks of seven of Ireland's inland waterways, is the kind of publication that gives the reader a sense of empowerment, in other words, they will know where they are and where they should be going at all times.
In the introduction, Dunne tells us that the first canal was credited to King Menses who built a canal in Upper Egypt 6000 years ago. The Chinese built their first from 600 BC, the Romans in 103 BC and 17 years later the Romans built the first canal in these islands at Foss Dyke, connecting Lincoln with the Trent River at Torksey.
He says the first Irish canal was probably built in Galway, the Friars Island Cut, prior to 1150 to link Galway to Lough Corrib.
Ireland's first commercial canal was built between 1731 and 1741 at Newry to carry coal from Tyrone to the sea. That brought to mind my misspent youth when as a student I once had to hitch a lift home on one of Kelly's coalboats from Manchester, working my passage in the hold ballasting the coal which was then brought to Newry.
The Grand Canal, which features prominently in this publication, started life in 1756 to be followed by the Royal Canal in the 1790s. This book brings you lock by lock along them in easy stages, giving map coordinates and clear and concise instructions where to enter and exit.
The book evoked other memories for me as well. One night in 1989, I was dispatched with a photographer to a point between Edenderry and Tullamore, Co Offaly, where, according to our very excited informant, the area had been hit by a tidal wave. It had, because the canal bank had been breached due to inclement weather and an astonishing 455 million litres of water, that is more than 100 million gallons of water for any non-Europeans reading this, flowed down the embankments sweeping into nearby rivers and drains. Looking down, the drained canal was a sight that still sticks in the mind.
The national drink, Guinness, has had a long association with the canal and for nearly two centuries, it used the canal to deliver its barrels to all points west. The bargemen, it was claimed, became adept at tapping the kegs and it was said the company used to add extra to the barrels to ensure the boatmen would not suffer.
THE AUTHOR INCLUDES much of the lore from the canals and mentions some of the ghost and other stories associated with the waterways.
One of the most fascinating stories is one told to him about a man called Wagner Byrne who lived near the Lagan Canal in Co Tyrone and who had a mysterious and dark reputation due to his frequent dabbling in the black arts. "There is a bar near Aghagallon with a private room where Wagner Byrne was said to have produced a hare and two greyhounds from a tumbler of water. A bout of coursing apparently ensued and those present swore they witnessed the animals chasing around," goes the legend.
The tour of the waterways begins in Ringsend and gives detailed descriptions on how to travel the 21 kilometres to Hazelhatch with a linear map marking the locks and naming them, something many native born Dubliners would be unable to do.
Then one can travel from Hazelhatch to Naas via Sallins on the main line taking the Naas branch canal. There is the tour from Sallins to Lowtown, through Robertstown.
On another day, you will be guided from Lowtown to Monasterevin, a town that has been described as the original spaghetti junction, where four different transport arteries: road, rail, river and canal criss-cross each other at different points in the town.
Dunne does not fail to mention the association of the town with the late great Count John McCormack and the Gerard Manley Hopkins connection and throws in a plug for the best coffee shop in town, which he does for most of the routes.
There is no neglect either of what one should leave the canal to see along the route between Lowtown and Pollardstown Fen, home of the €6 million snail which delayed the opening of the new motorway there.
He even gives a route to Kilbeggan but warns the traveller that while the wildlife in the area is fantastic, cyclists should beware of electric fences that some farmers in the area have stretched across the towpath.
He picked up too on the fact that the first group to take real advantage of the new canal running west from Dublin was the British army who used the towpaths as a swift means of making their way there to put down the 1798 rebellion.
The new canal was used to bring back the French prisoners after the battle of Ballinamuck, Co Longford, for inspection and imprisonment in Dublin.
He is fully at home on the Barrow navigation system, giving some interesting details of the stretch from Carlow to Goresbridge and from there to the beautiful St Mullins.
On the Royal Canal routes we are advised to watch out for wildlife. He records an unpleasant encounter with a swarm of wasps at Archies Bridge, before the canal hits the Shannon at Clondra on Lough Ree.
COVERED TOO IS the reopened link between the Shannon and the Erne that winds its way through Leitrim and Cavan before hitting the upper Lough Erne which provides a link to the sea.
His northern routes take him up or down the Newry canal, from there to Portadown and into the river Bann which provided access to the coal that once was mined in Coalisland.
Towpath Tours also covers the Lagan canal system before dropping south again to look at the possibilities and opportunities on the Boyne system, giving great attention to the history of the sites and buildings along the 31-km journey from Drogheda to Navan via Slane.
Clearly a work of love, this book contains 71 pages of notes and references including an appendix with all the useful contacts needed for anyone who wants to know anything about the Irish navigation system.
With a total of 650km covered by the publication, the route descriptions will provide endless delight to cyclists, and even walkers will find it equally informative and probably even necessary as some landowners move to make access to their lands more difficult.
Towpath Tours: A Guide to Cycling Ireland's Waterways, by John Dunne is published by The Collins Press (12.95)