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My hike: Dublin to The River Shannon

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Books and Maps

 

Let’s start with the essentials.  You can plan your hike and keep track of your hiking progress with just one book and one set of maps as I did.  If you are planning a day or two’s walk and rather than focusing on the canal itself, you plan to take a number of side trips to places o f historic interest, more reference material will be needed.  We’ll get to that later.

 

Books

 

  • Essential--Guide of the Grand Canal of Ireland, published by Duchas, the Heritage Service (in cooperation with the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland) is absolutely indispensable.  I have the November 1999 edition, a 65-page spiral bound booklet with a colorful cover and enamel coated pages.  Map scale is about 1.5 inches per mile (or 2.4cm per km). 

 

The book breaks the 80+ miles into 15 map strips, each identifying the locks (and their identification number), bridges and other overpasses, nearby historic sites of interest and location of nearby services for the traveler. These map sheets are on the left of the fold, and on the right is commentary about the canal and locks, historical information, the rise of each lock, name of the lockmaster, and in which nearby communities facilities such as shops, and pubs may be found.   

 

An online version of this entire book is found at   .  I strongly encourage you to purchase this superb reference material. ISBN 0-7076-1625-5

 

  • Recommended—Walking Across Ireland:  From Dublin Bay to Galway Bay, written by Michael Fewer and published by The Collin Press, 2003. I became aware of this highly current book only after arriving in Ireland and didn’t buy it until I had completed my hike.  Fewer uses the Grand Canal for much of his route across the country during which he transverses the midlands on his way to Galway Bay from Dublin.  He strikes off over the Dublin and Wicklow mountains and reaches the canal near Sallins (and on page 74).  At that point he follows the Grand Canal Way all the way to its end at the River Shannon.  So from page 74 to 144 he is on the canal or in the pleasant villages nearby.  Like me, he continued to Banagher.  Fewer has a pleasant writing style, infusing historical events with commentary from locals he encounters.  This book too, is highly recommended.  ISBN 1-903464-39-0

 

Maps

 

  • Essential—Discovery Series 1:50,000 scale topographical maps published by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland.  Dates vary but all are recent.  These are highly detailed maps that even show locations of buildings (outside congested areas).  Contour lines show elevations, symbols show types of structure, such as church or cathedral, police station, and post office.  For hikers, a critical detail is the precise location of walks, with the marked walks distinguished from the unmarked. The reader can spot where the walking path shifts from one side of the canal to the other, for example.  Canals and other water bodies, bridges, locks, roads and other physical features make these indispensable maps.  I cut my maps into narrow strips, each covering a couple miles either side of the canal, so I could see what towns and villages lay nearby.  I then laminated the map strips and placed them inside a zip-lock plastic bag, safe and dry. 

 

    • The Grand Canal in the Dublin area appears on map sheet 50
    • The Grand Canal in central and western Kildare and eastern Offaly (Sallins and Edenderry) appears on map sheet 49
    • The Grand Canal area at Tullamore is on map sheet 48
    • The Grand Canal at Shannon Harbor is on map sheet 47
    • Banagher is on map sheet 53

 

These maps are widely available in Ireland.  The Ordnance Survey is located in Phoenix Park, Dublin 8.  Their website is http://www.osi.ie/

 

Other recommendations

 

You are encouraged to recommend other books, maps and reference materials.  From time to time I’ll update this page and include some new materials.  You can email your recommendations to me at GrandCanalHiker@aol.com

 

Books and maps for local side trips

(To be added later.  Come back and visit soon.)