Banagher
The riverside town of Banagher, which means, "Ford of the Rocks"
is located in the Shannon crossing and was originally a small
port in the 18th century. It was once home to such literary greats
as Anthony Trollope and Charlotte Bronte & also William Wilde
the father of Oscar Wilde.
Banagher is an ideal base for touring Ireland. Its main attractiveness
is it's complete nature made up of beautiful rivers. A fisherman's
paradise with the River Shannon, Brosna, Lough Derg, Lough Allen
and the Grand Canal. Offaly's unpolluted waters are home to
all types of fish-salmon, perch, pike, brown trout, bream, eels,
roach and rudd. Banagher is home to the Course Angling Centre,
which holds annual competitions for clubs in April and May as
well as September and October each year.
The area is unspoilt, the traffic moderate and most importantly,
the people in the countryside, towns and village are friendly.
For evening entertainment Banagher offers a selection of pubs
and restaurants.
The Shannon
Watch some of the most beautiful scenery in Ireland unfold in
front of you as you get underway. Enjoy the thrill of captaining
your very own modern cruiser while the rest of the crew are busy
preparing breakfast or lunch. Then you can sit back, relax, and
let the mighty River Shannon escort you on a nautical journey
of a lifetime.
Rising in County Cavan this majestic river meanders gracefully
through sloping mountain ranges, past ancient monastic settlements
on a journey that takes some 500 Kilometres to the cosmopolitan
city of Limerick and a further 60 miles of estuary where it
empties into the wild Atlantic Ocean. It is navigable from Lough
Allen in the North to Killaloe in the South.
Lough Derg
Should you choose to go south then it is the huge expanse of Lough
Derg that will bid you welcome. Surrounded on both sides by quaint
Irish Villages with welcoming Irish Pubs, serving real Irish Guinness
to the sound of traditional Irish music, this is without doubt
one of the best cruising areas in Europe. It is also one of the
easiest as the Shannon has only 7 locks along its entire 500 navigable
kilometres. Lough Derg is the largest of the great Shannon Lakes
covering a total distance of some 24 miles between Portumna and
Killaloe and it is 9 miles across at its widest point. Killaloe
is one of the principal crossing points of the Shannon and the
town also boasts some very fine pubs and restaurants.
There are hundreds of places of interest where you can stop
off for as long as you like. Don't forget to bring your golf
clubs or your fishing rods, for there are plenty of opportunities
for both. If however you prefer the quiet life then you can
just while away the hours relaxing and enjoying a quiet drink
in an Irish country tavern in any number of our historic towns
or villages. There is much to interest the historian and the
archaeologist in these out of the way places, so if after you
are suitable refreshed you feel so inclined, take a stroll and
visit some of these places of interest yourself. Meet some of
the local people whose reputation for friendliness and hospitality
is the very cornerstone on which Irish tourism has been built. |
| Banagher
& The River Shannon
|
Shannon-Erne Waterway
The Shannon-Erne Waterway provides the link between the Erne in
the North and the Shannon in the South. This link re-opened in
1994, the waterway is approximately 65 Kms in length consisting
of 16 locks along the entire link, many of Silver Line Cruisers
craft can navigate this system, however some of our cruisers will
have air-draft restrictions, full details and advice are available
from our main reservations office.
From Banagher which is ideally located midway along the river
you can choose to travel North or South. To the north is Clonmacnoise
probably the most important of the many monastic sites located
along the river. Further on is the bustling midlands town of
Athlone and beyond is Lough Ree, which extends for an incredible
19 miles. It is 6 miles wide at its widest point. |
