The river Shannon is an obvious choice for a long sailing canoe trip. It is long, wide and, particularly in the Southern section above Killaloe, open and unsheltered by trees, so it is good for sailing, with very little river flow. There are also two huge Loughs with lots of fine islands.
Although I could not find any historical accounts of sailing canoe trips on the river, I did find a book called ” An Englishman in Ireland” about a man paddling down the river in 1878 and his tale gave me some inspiration.
The trip was planned as two separate weeks, each with a different crew. Partly based on the wind forecast, we decided to go for South to North, against the flow for the first week with William and Pat, starting in Killalo/Ballina and ending near Athlone. We would then go back by bus to get the camper van and drive North to Boyle with our new crew Jeremy and Rebecca to spend the second week sailing/paddling South down the slightly more sheltered upper reaches of the Boyle/Shannon going with the flow, to finish back at Athlone again.
First week, Day 1 09/06/2018 14.9 miles
We got shower cards for the trip from T J Angling and unloaded the canoes off the roof of the van at the slip in Ballina. It’s always hard to pack everything in on the first day, perhaps partly because you have not yet got used to how to stow everything in a cunning way but also because there is so much food. In this case we nearly forgot to add all the cold food items from the van fridge as the canoes already seemed full to the brim.
Finally away at about 11.45am. We had to tack quite hard against the combined effect of the Northerly force 3 and the outflow in the river. Once out in the Lough Derg we tried to find a quiet lunch spot but most of the Western shore was occupied by private houses, so headed over to the East side and stopped in a field.
After lunch, we tacked on up the Lough until the wind died about 5pm. We paddled on along the shore to where the Lough opens out to the West. Most of the coastline here is covered by reeds and overhanging trees so is not suitable for camping. We decided to paddle over to Holy Island which looked green and a possible good camping spot now that the daily visitors would have gone home. We camped about 7.15pm in the grass which was very long despite the efforts of the sheep on the island.
We had a nice swim during a thunderstorm which luckily did not start until we had the tents up. We explored the ruins in the twilight and had a Spaghetti Bolognaise that we had precooked at home.
Day 2 10/06/2018 13.6 miles
We were up at 7.30am and away by 9.30am paddling across to Mountshannon for a coffee and a croissant. It was a nice little harbour, but there was not much else there. It was a short walk to the small village with the cafe.
We paddled on up the shore as there was absolutely no wind. Warm but overcast. We cut inside some islands through nearly impenetrable reeds which was fun.
We rounded the Easternmost point and turned North looking for a suitable lunch stop. We ended up going into Blackrock harbour which was even smaller than Mountshannon but quite pretty.
We sailed North in a force 2 during the afternoon then finished by “motor-sailing” with the paddles and sails across a wide bay to the West and camped on a sunny patch of short grass on a small island where, luckily, the holiday home in the middle of it was unoccupied.
Pat cooked a fine chickpea curry with rice and we had a nice fire.
Day 3 11/06/2018 11.1 miles
We tacked up the Lough against a light NNW force 2-3. The West shore seemed too thick with reeds or dense trees for us to find a suitable place to stop .
However, we stopped briefly on the East shore and then at the harbour near Portumna, near the head of the Lough, to have a shower and re-provision. The harbour itself is designed for large rented motor cruisers with high topsides and there is no slip, so it was difficult to get in and out of the canoes up a ladder and hard to stow our purchases in the fore hatch.
The town was a short walk through the grounds of a grand stately home . We sought refuge in a cafe that had been created in one of its outbuildings.
By contrast the town itself appeared down at heel. All the pubs were shut despite it being only 2.30pm and Barbara bought the one and only free range chicken in the Low Cost Supermarket.
Here we left Lough Derg and returned to the river Shannon itself. The first obstacle was a very low road bridge. Whichever side of the large midstream island you go, the bridge is so low that you need to take both masts down to get under it. I did not realise this until the last moment and dropped my mizzen mast into the water complete with the sail, which then acted like a sea anchor. The river flow here was more significant than we had expected and so we had quite a battle to make progress.
It was now 6.30pm and we wanted to find a place to camp. After a further 2 miles paddling hard against the wind and current, we turned into a very small inlet on the East bank which gave access to a narrow channel behind a big flat island with horses, like a piece of the Camargue transported to Ireland. Barbara cooked a very elaborate meal of Chicken Tarragon and potatoes whilst the rest of us set up camp.
Pat at home!
Day 4 12/06/2018 12.5 miles
No wind so paddled North East along the narrow channel on the Eastern side of some long islands to keep out of the worst of the current. We passed the only other canoeists that we saw all week, a group of kayakers 5 days into a trip down river to Limerick.
We came to our first lock, in the middle of nowhere, just as the gates were opening an a motor cruiser was coming out. It was very deep and somewhat intimidating, with no visible stepladders. We crept in and waited against the wall. Initially nothing happened but after a bit the lock keeper looked over the edge of the wall and noticed us. Our masts were so short they didn’t even show above the top.
Although large, there was little turbulence and canoes pass through for free as they have no engines!
When the river finally turned East we were able to sail the last 2 miles to Banagher. This town also proved a bit of a disappointment, a somewhat run down settlement whose only claim to fame appeared to be that Trollop had worked there as a clerk in his youth. However, we did find somewhere to have tea and scones.
We were back aboard at about 5pm for a short paddle assisted sail against a fairly strong flow to turn into a very small and intricate channel in the East bank shown on the map just beyond the island called Bird Island. Here we found a nice camping place. It was a bit muddy, but we had a nice fire and there was a big log to sit on. Barbara and I had a swim in the weedy channel. Luckily there seemed to be no sign of the cattle that where evidently driven across a shallow ford here from the mainland to graze.
Day 5 13/06/2018 14.4 miles
I was woken at 5am by the sound of thundering hooves running away from our tent. I got back to sleep, but woken again by the sound of cattle close by at about 6am. I Got up and made tea, resuscitated the campfire and sat on the log. The inquisitive and gradually bolder heifers would keep coming back closer and closer until a sound or a sudden movement from me scared them off again at a run to regroup out of range. The others were up by 7am and we were away by 8.45am watched over closely by the herd.
The wind had now turned Southerly force 3, rising significantly during the day. This was the tail of storm “Hector” and was part of the reason behind choosing to go from South to North during the first week. I preferred to tack against a light Northerly wind in the wide open space of Lough Derg during the first 3 days rather than face a fierce headwind on the Loch on days 5 & 6.
We ran before the wind under full sail at about 4 knots to Shannonbridge. It was rather cold.
We moored on the pontoons and went to Luckers Bar to warm up and have a full cooked lunch with a view of the river. It started to rain and the wind increased.
After lunch we took in a reef and headed on for about 5 miles to Clonmachnoise, finishing with an 8 knot blast along the last reach to beach by the visitor’s pontoon.
We went ashore and looked round the holy site. It cost 8 Euros each to visit and was nice enough but a bit of a tourist honey pot.
It rained and the wind howled. We holed up in the cafe for tea and scones, putting off getting back into the canoes for as long as possible.
At about 5pm we set out again under mizzen only ( set forward), onwards for another 2 miles trying to find a suitably sheltered place to camp, unfortunately to no avail. So we ended up in a blind inlet on an island covered in thick grass and meadow flowers, but with no shelter at all from the wind, however, at least there were no cows.
We pitched the new cooking shelter that I had made for the first time, between our two small sleeping tents.
William cooked a Carbonnara under trying circumstances as the roof of the shelter bellied down on his back and the supporting poles bent like bows, requiring doubling with a spare pole and some duct tape.
Day 6 14/06/2018 13.4 miles
The tents and the cooking shelter survived the 19/gusting 40 knot wind during the night, but it was hard to get any sleep on account of the noise of flapping fabric. I felt the need to brace the windward pole in our tent by hand for some time during the night.
We had a deliberately slow start ( away by 10.30am) in order to allow the wind to die down a bit and for some forecast rain to pass. Luckily the wind swung to West, 16 knots, allowing us to tack back out of our blind ended channel under 15 sq ft pocket handkerchief sails with the foremasts stowed below.
We arrived at the lock in Athlone at 13.13. The lock keeper had gone to lunch ( an institution for lock keepers in Ireland as it is in France) so we had a picnic lunch in the rather un-salubrious urban environment. There were some issues about us going through this lock, perhaps because it is situated next to the office of the river inspectorate, who took an interest in us. It seems that, according to the rules, “Kayaks” are not allowed through the locks on the Shannon, but must be portaged. Accordingly, we declared ourselves under the heading of “sailing vessel”. All boats are told that they must provide long warps to surge around bollards and hold their position during any turbulence in the locks. In practice we were put through, by a friendly lock keeper “on our own” so as to ” avoid the risk of being crushed by any wayward or inexperienced hire boat users who might have only just started out from Athlone”. Despite quoting the rule about warps to us he turned a blind eye to the fact that we were just holding on to the hanging chains with our hands in order to keep position.
We sailed on out into Lough Ree where it was less protected and rather more gusty. The wind was forecast to reduce to 12 knots by 6pm. After a somewhat anxious passage over some shallows cutting inside and island on the Eastern shore, we rounded Coonan Point into shelter and ran down a long lane of buoys put out for some rowing races and through narrow reeded channels to reach the pleasant, low-key, lakeside campsite at Ballykeeran.
Journey’s end. Most of the first week’s crew at Coonan Point.