Newry Canal

Despite its shortcomings, the canal was earning around £7,000 per year from tolls by the 1790s. However, the canal was being run by local people who had taken over the canal after the Commissioners were dismissed, and they failed to invest in its improvement or maintenance. By 1800 it was in a ruinous state, and the Director General took control. Henry Walker, an engineer, was asked to put it back into good order, but was imprisoned and then deported to America for acting fraudulently. John Brownrigg then produced a detailed report of its condition, in which he suggested it would be cheaper to build a new canal than repair the existing one, but his advice was ignored. As the refurbishment involved the rebuilding of many bridges and locks, widening and deepening the summit level, there were long periods where the canal was effectively closed. The water supply was improved, and the ship lock was restored, but inevitably, closures resulted in traffic transferring to road transport, and it proved difficult to attract it back to the canal, once the work was completed in 1811.[10]

Between 1818 and 1827, the canal collected tolls of £2,546 per year, and its reserves rose from £8,520 in 1800 to £28,000 in 1829. If the £57,000 of public money spent on its restoration was ignored, it made a modest profit. William Dawson introduced a private passenger service from Portadown to Newry in 1813, and although he was always asking for the tolls to be reduced, the service continued for many years. Although the Tyrone Navigation had finally opened in 1787, this did not result in coal traffic using the canal. The importance of Newry as a port declined as Belfast became more prominent, and the ship canal could not cope with the increasing size of ships as sail was replaced by steam. Various engineers were consulted, including John Brownrigg, Sir John Rennie and Alexander Nimmo. All suggested that a larger sea lock was required in deeper water, and that the ship canal needed to be enlarged.[11]

In 1829, the government agreed to transfer both the ship canal and the Newry Canal to a private company, whose chairman was the Marquess of Downshire. The Directors General objected, as they had not been consulted, and felt that it was wrong to transfer an undertaking that had been built using public money to a private company. However, the company agreed to spend £80,000 on improvements over the following twenty years, and kept their word. By 1850, a new sea lock had been built, some 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) further down the estuary, which doubled the size of ships that could use it. The river had been dredged, and the Albert Basin had been constructed at Newry. The Newry Canal also benefitted, with receipts rising to £3,500 per year, resulting from the tonnage carried doubling to over 100,000 tons per year.[12]

Scarva canal bridge.

With the coming of the railways in the 1850s, the canal went into decline. The railway line from Belfast to Dublin opened in 1852, and ran parallel to the canal for much of its length. Newry was integrated into the system by the construction of a short branch line, and in 1865 a link from Newry to the Ulster Railway at Armagh was completed. Newry prospered as a port, with traffic passing through it more than trebling from 103,560 tons in 1831 to 363,558 tons in 1888, but in the same period, traffic on the canal halved from 70,749 tons to 33,500 tons. The owning company was still saddled with debts from the engineering projects carried out since 1829, and coal traffic from the Tyrone collieries had all but ceased.[13] Despite this, there was still some traffic on the canal, most of it passing northwards from Newry, including imported coal, timber and heavy goods, where the canal remained competitive with the railways.[14]

In 1884, the company carried out its last major engineering project, when the upper reaches of Carlingford Lough and the lower Newry River were made deeper, and the navigable channel widened to 37 metres (120 ft). This allowed ships of up to 5,000 tons to reach Newry. The project cost £55,000, and was authorised by the Newry Navigation Act.[15] There were plans to extend the Clogher Valley Railway to Newry in 1900, but those proposing the scheme realised that the Newry Navigation Company would object to the scheme, and relationships between the Canal company and Newry Urban Council were already strained. The railway scheme was thus dropped, after which the promoters and council jointly approached the Canal company, with a plan to buy out the company and create a public corporation, in which the interests of the town and port would be adequately represented. The Newry Port and Harbour Trust was established in 1901, and the Newry Canal made a small profit until the First World War. Afterwards, maintenance costs swamped any income received,[16] and the last recorded commercial traffic was in 1936. The Northern Ireland administration had no interest in canals, and a warrant of abandonment was issued[17] on 7 May 1949, which covered all but the Newry town section, which was similarly abandoned on 21 March 1956.[18] Soon the swing bridges in Newry were replaced by fixed bridges, cutting off the canal from the sea, and the ship canal was closed in 1966 when Warrenpoint replaced the port of Newry. The Newry Port and Harbour Trust was wound up in 1974.[17]

The Enterprise crossing the Newry Canal.

Liquidators handling the disposal of the Trust's assets approached the local councils, and Newry and Mourne District Council bought the ship canal and the section of the Newry Canal which was within its jurisdiction for two pounds. Craigavon Borough Council bought the northern section for another two pounds in the early 1980s, and the middle section was given to Armagh City and District Council and Banbridge District Council in 1992.[19] The Newry Canal was one of the first of the waterways of Northern Ireland to be considered for restoration. A plan was costed in 1980, and an attempt to secure Millennium Lottery funding was made in 1996, but failed due to the lack of matched funding.[20] The proposals involved using the existing course for most of the route, but bypassing the fixed bridges of Newry by using the Clanrye River, which would involve building one or two new locks.[19]

Moneypenny's Lock (No. 14), which was named after the lock-keepers who lived there for over 80 years, has been restored by Craigavon Borough Council. Banbridge District Council maintain a small museum at Scarva, and the ship canal and sea lock have been restored by Newry and Mourne District Council.[21] It now provides access for leisure craft visiting Newry. It is suitable for boats up to 61 metres (200 ft) by 10 metres (33 ft) with a draught of up to 3.4 metres (11 ft). Victoria Lock, where the ship canal joins the sea, is tidal, and was automated in May 2007.[22]

Since closure, some sections have fallen into a state of disrepair. Although most of the lock gates have long since rotted away, many of the locks themselves are in excellent condition, being constructed from local Mourne granite. It is now overgrown for much of its length; however, this means that it is now a haven for wildlife. This includes larger mammals like otters, and the Brackagh Bog area provides habitat for several species which are not found elsewhere in Northern Ireland, including plants, damselflies, dragonflies and 19 species of butterflies.[19] There is a flow of fresh water along the canal, and good stocks of fish. Coarse fishing for perch, roach, bream and pike is possible on the River Bann, on the ship canal, and on parts of the canal, although the lower sections are choked with weed.[23] The towpath has been reopened, and is now part of the Ulster Way long distance footpath. It has been incorporated into the National Cycle Network,[24] and is maintained by two wardens throughout the year.