County Kildare Walking Routes Project - Kildare.ie

County Kildare Walking Routes Project
Comments
1. The route passes through two landscape character areas defined in the County
Development Plans as the Southern Lowlands and the River Barrow. The route
includes a riverside walk, canal bank towpath, urban landscape and a town park with
exotic trees.
2. The river bank walk passes natural woodland with sycamore, elder and ash on Lord’s
Island. The river is fast flowing at the Railway Bridge weir with grey wagtails and rare
kingfishers. Flocks of mallard duck are common. Along the canals are small
submerged and free floating plants. Nearer the banks sedges and horsetails stand
clear of shallower water. At the edge there are grasses, tall herbs and trees such as
alder and willow. The range of habitats supports a wide diversity of wildflowers, trees,
shrubs, insects, mammals, fish and birds. The well maintained town park has an
interesting collection of imported tree species.
3. Athy is well served by bus and rail connections with regular daily services to Dublin.
There is ample car parking at several points along the route including Emily Square,
Meeting Lane, the train station and the canal harbour. The walk eloquently
demonstrates .the link between the urban landscape and its activities dependant on its
agricultural hinterland. The canal and rail links along the route show how Athy’s
commercial activity is linked to the natural hinterland (coal from Wolfhill by railway;
export of roof tiles by rail, the canal harbour and warehouses that acted as export point
for grain and malt to Dublin). Urban dwellers are very quickly brought into direct
contact with natural heritage along the riverbank and canal.
4. Athy is a designated heritage town with its own Heritage Town Trail. Along the route is
the late medieval Whites Castle, c. 1575; the five-arch cut limestone classical style
Crom a Boo bridge; c. 1796; a burial ground in John’s Lane dated from the medieval
era with eighteenth and nineteenth century grave markers; rubble stone walls formerly
of terrace of cottages, c. 1850, with blocked-up openings; a cast-iron wall-mounted
letter box, c. 1905, with moulded frame and Edward VII insignia; a terrace of three-bay
two-storey Georgian houses, c. 1810; a section of the Grand Canal (Barrow Line)
constructed c. 1790 linking into the Barrow Navigation; freestanding Gothic Revival Tplan
Methodist chapel, built 1874; a group of gas works outbuildings, c. 1861; former
gaswork manager's house, built 1859; canal harbour with associated warehouse and
former hotel; a group of six cast-iron mooring bollards, c. 1800, flanking the canal lock;
a malthouse kiln, c. 1860; a reconstructed limestone arch with ashlar voussoirs,
originally from the army barracks, c. 1740; octagonal cockpit, c. 1760; a river weir
dating from 1920; a precast concrete six-bay railway bridge with concrete parapet
walls, c. 1917; a four-bay horse bridge over the River Barrow with elliptical limestone
arches on concrete cutwaters built in 1927 on the site of the original 1796 bridge with a
balustraded ramp on the east bank and rubble stone river embankments to north and
south; a dramatic hyperbolic paraboid concrete shell roof on St. Domnic’s Church built
in 1965; the former county jail building c1830; a detached five-bay three-storey over
basement early Georgian mansion, c. 1740; a Regency Gothic church on cruciform
plan, c. 1840; a three-bay two-storey Victorian Tudor Gothic railway station, c. 1846; a
detached three-bay railway water tower, c. 1850, with Victorian Tudor doorcase; a
cast-iron lattice railway footbridge, erected c. 1886 by 'Arrol Brothers, Germiston Iron
Works, Glasgow; a detached two-storey railway signal box, c. 1950; a Victorian Tudor
Gothic gate lodge built as townpark caretaker's lodge, c. 1858; a detached five-bay
two-storey mid Victorian Gothic style rectory, built 1860; a detached six-bay singlestorey
prefabricated parochial hall, built 1909; a multi-denominational cemetery,
enclosing a medieval churchyard; a length of coursed rusticated limestone and granite