7 km; 1.75 hrs; Start: Map 20 J149628  
On rural tow path with historic interest

This walk provides an interesting opportunity to explore a section of the historic Lagan Canal. Without doubt it is truly a gem, a hidden corner of our country that only the privileged few know about, a little corner of heaven here on earth.

 

(Disused navigation)

 

The walk starts at the car park at Soldierstown Bridge (J149628). The route is on a gritted path and passes the section known as the Broadwater and continues along the Friars Glen to Aghalee. To access the car park, leave the M1 motorway at the Moira interchange, junction 9, and take the A26 towards the International Airport. Take the second road on the left, called Soldierstown Road and continue for just over 1 km to a hump back bridge. This is the bridge over the canal and the car park is on the left side.

On a beautiful day early in April 2002 we visited this walk. The walk was most enjoyable. The Broadwater was teeming with birdlife ~ Coot, Moorhen, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe and Swans. The air was full of the sound of songbirds enjoying the spring sunshine.

At Aghalee we came upon the disused lock shown alongside. The ramp in the lock bottom raises many questions. Clues as to its purpose should be send to walker@iwai.ie.

Background history
The oldest canal in Northern Ireland is the Newry Canal. It was built between 1731 and 1742. The building of the Lagan Canal was begun in 1756 and within a year the first six miles from Belfast were completed. It would take another forty-six years to complete the project. The first engineer was called Thomas Omer; he had first worked on the Newry navigation. In September 1763 the navigation was opened as far as Lisburn and the Lord Hertford, a sixty-ton lighter, made the first voyage. This boat belonged to Thomas Gregg, a prominent Belfast merchant. Between 1763 and 1765 the river was made navigable as far as Sprucefield and here construction ceased. The original estimate of £20,000 to open the entire canal had proved totally inadequate; indeed by this time nearly twice that amount had been spent. The funds were to be raised by levying one penny a gallon on ale and four pennies a gallon on spirits within the wider district of Lisburn.

In 1782 the Marquis of Donegal entered into an agreement with an English engineer called Richard Owen. Owen had worked on the Liverpool and Leeds Canal. He was to be paid £200 a year for four years to construct the remainder of the canal, sadly the allocated timescale proved rather elusive. One of the finest pieces of architecture that he built was the aqueduct above Spencer’s Bridge, built of sandstone quarried in the Earl of Hillsborough’s estate about two miles away in the town land of Kilwarlin. Sad to say the custodians of our built heritage had the foresight to build the M1 motorway on the bed of the canal between Sprucefield and Moira. This magnificent aqueduct was built just beyond the Moira roundabout. It with many of the fine bridges was demolished. The waterway reached Aghalee in 1792 and the canal finally reached Ellis Gut, a bay in Lough Neagh in 1793. The canal was formally opened on New Year’s Day in 1794, virtually 207 years ago to the day. This final section of the canal had cost the Marquis £62000 mostly from his own private funds.

Richard Owen, the engineer and builder of this section, lived in a house overlooking the Broadwater. He was born in Flixton in Lancashire. He described this area as the most beautiful place he had ever seen. I think you can see why. His dying wish was to be buried in a corner of Soldierstown Graveyard overlooking this very scene. The Church is directly in front of us. When resurrection day came, and he was raised from the grave, his first view would be this, his beloved Broadwater. Unfortunately those in more recent generations have denied his dying wish as they built this new church hall in his direct line of view.

Soldierstown Church
Lets pause a moment to look at Soldierstown Church and to view the Broadwater. This is the header lake or water source for the navigation. I’m sure you will agree it must have been a truly magnificent site to see horse drawn barges in this setting. The barges were known locally as lighters. They bore names such as Ida, Amy, and the Eliza etc. They were not brightly painted as the English narrowboats, but rather dull and drab structures. Perhaps the colour came from the characters that sailed them. One of the most renowned was a character called Jack McCann, perhaps better known as Hell Fire McCann. Jack had his theories on life in the animal kingdom. He often told the story of how rats stole eggs from nests. He claimed the rats were always in twos; one rat lay on its back in the water and carefully held the egg between its four paws, while the other rat towed it along by the tail through the water. He claimed to have witnessed this many times, I can’t dispute the theory, as I’ve never seen a rat steal an egg! Bob Mc Veigh was another character that always fished the waterway. Whenever he was asked how many he had caught that day, he always replied thirteen.

In the wintertime this area is a haven for wildlife, the swan population often exceeds one-hundred pairs. Most are the native Mute swan but in recent years there have been Canadian geese that have over wintered and befriended the local inhabitants. There are lots of water hens, a few herons and the odd kingfisher. As you walk along the towpath you will notice burrowings of foxes, badgers etc. The barge channel is along this side nearest the towpath.

George Weir’s house
This was George Weir’s house; he was employed as the bank ranger and looked after the two locks downstream from here. This is not a lock chamber but stop gates. They were built to control water levels. There were also stop gates at Halliday’s Bridge. These stop gates were rarely closed, in fact it is alleged the only time they were closed was during the 1920’s to stop the illegal movement of arms. The stonework here, like in so many of the locks between here and Lough Neagh is in remarkably good condition. The canal requires remarkably little work between here and Lough Neagh to make it navigable. If the banks were cleaned the channel dredged, and the lock gates re-instated, all we need is to organise a small boat rally! There are ten locks between here and Ellis Gut.

The area behind us at the start of the Broadwater was known as the "Hell Hole", it was a particularly deep part and is now very popular with fishermen. Beyond the house and on the far bank was a small white thorn bush known by the lighter men as "Arthur’s Bush". No one would ever cut it as it was known locally as a fairy bush. If anyone were ever to trim the bush bad luck would fall on them and their family. The small street houses in Belfast were known as two up’s, two down’s, have a look at this one, there can’t have been much more accommodation here. It is typical of lockkeeper’s cottages along the Lagan, sadly few still remain.

It took twelve hours for an empty barge to make the journey from Lough Neagh to Belfast and two days to haul a laden barge. Lets now proceed along Friar’s Glen as far as Aghalee. It is all level walking and is less than one mile.

Aghalee
Waterfront development is now the in-thing and the concept has now reached Aghalee. There are to be four houses built on the derelict land ahead but we are assured the walkway will not be obstructed. Unfortunately the walkway will follow the path into the village and will not pick up the canal bank again until the Lurgan/Glenavy road. The lock and quay at Aghalee can be seen ahead on the right hand side. The lock chamber is in excellent condition and the bollards for tying up the lighters are still in position. Unfortunately a garage has been constructed at this point on the quayside. Beyond the road you can see in the distance, private housing was built about twenty years ago and the individual house owners have extended their gardens to include the towpath. Lets face it the authorities in charge of our environment have not been particularly good custodians.

Craigavon Borough Council who are responsible for this towpath are to be congratulated for the sensitive way they have re-opened this walk from Moira. Already they have commenced the task of re-opening the remaining stretch to Lough Neagh. There are a number of stretches open but I gather there are still some sensitive negotiations to take place before we can complete the journey to Ellis Gut. I think you will agree if our MLA’s would show the foresight of Lisburn and Craigavon Council’s our dream to sail from Coleraine to Limerick by our navigable waterways would be much more realistic.

Like so many of the waterways in Northern Ireland the Lagan Navigation found it difficult to compete with road and rail transport. The waterway was officially abandoned in 1958. It had been a reasonably successful business venture; ownership had passed to the Lagan Navigation Company in 1842. Built to carry coal from the newly discovered coalfields of Tyrone to the expanding port of Belfast, it more often carried fuel in the opposite direction. The main goods carried were coal, grain, to Lough Neagh and sand, timber and bricks in the opposite direction. Like the Newry Canal its success would have been enhanced if the Ulster Canal had been more prosperous, but that is another story, perhaps for another walk some other day.

Return to the start by the towpath.

Brian Cassels
December 2001

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Maps:

Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, Discovery Series 1:50,000
- Map 20, Craigavon