THE RIVER CORRIB - AUGUST 2015

THE RIVER CORRIB GALWAY CITY

This was my first time to photograph the city of Galway and I used a Sony NEX-7. In general the weather was terrible and as the camera was not weather resistant not did not perform well so I replaced it with an A7RII a few weeks later. I now us an A7RIII and hope to upgrade to a MKIV after Christmas.


The River Corrib flows from Lough Corrib through Galway to Galway Bay. The river is among the shortest in Europe, with only a length of six kilometres from the lough to the Atlantic. It is popular with local whitewater kayakers as well as several rowing clubs and pleasure craft. The depth of this river reaches up to 94 feet. Although the Corrib is one of Ireland's shortest rivers, it has a mean long-term flow rate of 104.8 m3/s, making it Ireland's second-largest river (by flow), only surpassed by the River Shannon.

The part of the river that flows from the southern end of the lake to the Salmon Weir is known as the Upper Corrib. The weir, a set of weir gates also built during the above navigation scheme, was originally built from stone and timber but now only two of these gates remain and are only opened in times of flood. The rest have been replaced by fourteen steel gates.

The main channel leaving Lough Corrib is called Friars' Cut or Friars' River as it is the result of a very early piece of canal engineering. In 1178 the friars of Claregalway Abbey, being tired of the long detour they had to make to the west to enter the river, asked permission from the Blakes of Menloe to make an artificial cut, which in time became the main course of the river and was then widened.

The section of the river that runs from the Salmon Weir through Galway city and out into Galway Bay is known as the Lower Corrib. Three bridges cross the Lower – the Salmon Weir Bridge, William O'Brien Bridge and Wolfe Tone Bridge.

The only tributary of the Lower Corrib is Sruthán na gCaisleáin (Castle Stream) known by whitewater kayakers as the Shit Chute and the access point to the river, a small stream that flows through Newcastle, the grounds of NUI, Galway, and empties into the Lower just downstream of King's weir, commonly known as the fish gates.
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