Athlone Canal

Athlone Canal

This picture is taken from south of the town near where the Canal enters the Shannon. The Canal which is approximately a mile and a quarter in length is situated west of Athlone and was built by Thomas Omer in 1757 to by-pass the stretch of river which flows through the town. The by-pass was necessary because the river had a series of shallows and rapids as well as some man-made obstacles such as eel-weirs which impeded the navigation. There is a natural fall of over four foot between the point where the canal commenced, north of Athlone (near the No 1 Battery) and where it re-entered the Shannon. To overcome this drop a large lock was constructed – when the Canal went out of use following the Shannon Navigation Works the Lock was used to power a mill.

© Ann Hennessy / Westmeath Library Service
Athlone Canal
© Ann Hennessy / Westmeath Library Service

Athlone Canal

This picture is taken from south of the town near where the Canal enters the Shannon. The Canal which is approximately a mile and a quarter in length is situated west of Athlone and was built by Thomas Omer in 1757 to by-pass the stretch of river which flows through the town. The by-pass was necessary because the river had a series of shallows and rapids as well as some man-made obstacles such as eel-weirs which impeded the navigation. There is a natural fall of over four foot between the point where the canal commenced, north of Athlone (near the No 1 Battery) and where it re-entered the Shannon. To overcome this drop a large lock was constructed – when the Canal went out of use following the Shannon Navigation Works the Lock was used to power a mill.

© Ann Hennessy / Westmeath Library Service
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The cutting of a canal, one mile long, on the west side of Athlone in 1757 was one of the earliest inland-waterways works in Westmeath. The work was necessitated because the Shannon was not navigable through Athlone due to the rapids and shallows which formed part of the natural ford.

The canal designed by Thomas Omer provided a good temporary solution to the transportation problems on the Shannon at Athlone. It was to serve until the great Shannon navigation works of the 1840s. The canal had two locks: a full scale lock which was 19 ft. wide and 120 ft. long and a Rymer Lock or guard-lock which was built to protect the works downstream in case of flooding.


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