The Shannon-Erne Waterway is a canal linking the River Shannon in the Republic of Ireland with the River Erne in Northern Ireland. Managed by Waterways Ireland, the canal is 63 km (39 mi) in length, has sixteen locks and runs from Leitrim village in County Leitrim to Upper Lough Erne in County Fermanagh. It is the longest inland cruising system in Europe.
The official opening of the Shannon-Erne Waterway took place at Corraguil Lock, Teemore, County Fermanagh on 23 May 1994.
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The first attempt at a canal was made in 1780, along the Woodford river, from Belturbet to Ballyconnell. This was part of a scheme to improve navigation from Ballyshannon, on the Lower Lough Erne, through to the Upper Lough Erne. However this was beset by financial problems and all worked stopped in 1792. Though various other schemes were proposed, it wasn't until 1847 with the completion of the Ulster Canal that work was finally started, financed by the Office of Public Works with their John McMahon setting out the line and William Mulvany as the engineer in charge.[1] The aim was to provide both drainage and a navigation, and this has never been a satisfactory combination.
The first boats to use the canal from Ballinamore were in 1858. By this time the cost had risen from the initial estimates of £131,858 to £274,272. Although there was not yet any rail competition in the area, the hope of Belfast to Limerick traffic had been pre-empted by the railways.[2] between 1860 and 1869 only 8 boats paid to go through the navigation, though probably others did without paying.
Though the canal remained officially open there were problems with draft, and in the 1880s, low level rail bridges were placed across the canal, confident that they would never be asked to raise them. In 1881, one of the trustees, John Grey Vesey Porter, asserted after a survey that "it is one of the most shameful pieces of mismanagement in any country." Very little was done in the way of maintenance and by 1948 the navigation trustees ceased to function. From then, essential drainage work was still carried out by the drainage trustees and councils performed essential maintenance to the structures.
Here things lay until 1988, when the International Fund for Ireland financed a detail study and feasibility study into restoring the canal, which lay across the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In June 1989, Charles Haughey, the Taoiseach announced that the two governments had decided to adopt the proposal as a flagship North/South project.[2] Work commenced in November 1990 and was opened to traffic on 23 May 1994 on time and within the budget of £30m. It was essentially a new navigation along the line of the original waterway, which had never been properly completed in the first place.
The waterway has three natural sections: a still-water canal from the Shannon at Leitrim to Kilclare, which has eight locks; a summit level which includes Lough Scur, and a river navigation from Castlefore, near Keshcarrigan, through Ballinamore and Ballyconnell to the Erne, which has another eight locks.