canals leitrim

Work on the original canal started in 1846 and took 14 years to complete. The dream of permanently joining the great River Shannon and the Erne lakes was fulfilled and shattered in a short 9 years when the age of steam and the railways rendered the canal reduntant and it closed to commercial traffic. The leisure potential of re establishing the link has long recognised and since its official opening in 1994, many pleasure cruisers, barges, canoes and sailing dinghies now ply this old waterway w...