THE WATERWAYS OF GALWAY PHOTOGRAPHED BY WILLIAM MURPHY

AUGUST 2017



I plan to revisit Galway at the beginning of September. My last five visits were in August and the weather has been bad every time. The main problem was rain.


The River Corrib in the west of Ireland 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.

The Corrib may be one of Ireland's shortest rivers, but with a mean long term flow rate of 104.8 cubic metres per second, it is Ireland's second largest river, only surpassed by the River Shannon (by flow).

At one stage there were over thirty water wheels powered by races built on the river and its accompanying cut, the Eglinton Canal, which was built in the mid-19th Century.

The main channel leaving Lough Corrib is called Friar's Cut as it is the result of a very early piece of canal engineering. In fact it was the first canal to be built on the island of Ireland. 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 Menlo Castle to make an artificial cut, which in time became the main course of the river and was then widened.


NOTE: THE PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWN BELOW ARE FROM MY 2015 VISIT TO GALWAY