Tralee Ship Canal facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tralee Ship Canal Longchanáil Thrá Lí
Tralee Ship Canal from the swing bridge at Blennerville, Co. Kerry
Specifications
Length	3.2 km (2.0 miles)
Locks	1
Status	Open
Navigation authority	Unknown
History
Construction began	1832
Date completed	1846
Date closed	1951
Date restored	1999
Geography
Start point	Tralee
End point	Blennerville
Connects to	Tralee Bay

The Tralee Ship Canal (Irish: Longchanáil Thrá Lí) is a waterway built in County Kerry, Ireland. It connects Tralee Bay to the town of Tralee. This canal was made for ships to carry goods and people. It stopped being used in the middle of the 1900s. But don't worry, it has been fixed up and is now open again!

Building the Tralee Canal

The Tralee Ship Canal was built because the old port in Blennerville was getting too shallow. This happened because of silting, which is when sand and mud build up. Merchants in Tralee needed a better way to get their goods in and out. So, in 1829, the government approved a plan to build a new canal.

Work on the canal started in 1832. It took a long time to finish because there were problems getting enough money. Finally, in 1846, the canal was ready for ships.

Canal Features

The canal is about 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) long. It had some important parts:

• A new canal basin in Tralee, which is like a wide pool for boats.
• Lock gates to help ships move between different water levels.
• A wooden swing bridge in Blennerville that could open to let ships pass.

Big ships, weighing up to 300 tonnes, could use the canal. However, after only a short time, the canal also started to get shallow from silting.

Why the Canal Closed

By the 1880s, a new, deeper port called Fenit harbour was built. This new port did not have problems with silting. Soon after, a railway was built between Fenit and Tralee. This railway made it easy to move goods from ships at Fenit to Tralee.

Because of the silting and the new railway, the Tralee Ship Canal was used less and less. It was eventually closed in 1951.

Bringing the Canal Back to Life

In the early 1990s, the nearby Blennerville Windmill was fixed up. This gave people the idea to restore the canal too. They thought it could become a fun place for tourists to visit.

Restoration Project

In 1999, a group called the Office of Public Works (OPW) started a big project to restore the canal. It cost a lot of money, about IR£650,000.

The restoration work included:

• Digging out the canal basin to make it deeper.
• Building a new swing bridge at Blennerville.
• Fixing the old lock gates.
• Removing all the built-up mud and sand from the canal.

The Canal Today

After the restoration, the area around the canal basin was improved. New apartment buildings were built, and there are plans for a marina. The path along the canal, called a towpath, was also made better. Now, many people enjoy walking or cycling along this path as part of the Dingle Way. The Tralee Rowing Club also uses the canal and has its boathouse there.

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  The Basin at the end of the Tralee Ship Canal

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  Looking towards Tralee Bay from the swing bridge at Blennerville

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  Lock Gate towards Tralee Bay