Ireland canal boat charters?

[Dubnuh]

Hello, can anyone recommend a great (good?) bareboat canal-boat rental co. in Ireland? I'd like to do the Irish in-land pub crawl this symmer.

 

[Marin]

We've done a ton of narrowboating on the canals in England and Wales and will soon be doing more. At one point we looked into the canals in Ireland, and if memory serves, there is only really one canal over there but there are a number of navigable rivers.

If you have not already found it, here is a website with a fair amount of information on cruising the Irish waterways. Narrowboat boating holidays on the canals of Ireland

 

[Dubnuh]

Thanks Marin, that's an excellent resource. If Ireland isn't the canal boat dream, would you recommend another choice from personal experience?
Thanks!
-Silas

 

[Marin]

Thanks Marin, that's an excellent resource. If Ireland isn't the canal boat dream, would you recommend another choice from personal experience?
Thanks!
-Silas

Since 1990, we have been doing just about all the canals in the northern half of the canal system in England. Which by general definition means the canals north of Birmingham.

We have loved all of them, and will be going back again to do some of the same ones and some new ones starting in early 2017.

It would take a long, long time to pass on our recommendations for canals and boat types. So here's a place to start: George's Canal Pages George's: Canal Boating in the U.K. and Europe

In the past we hired from the same company, Middlewich Narrowboats which was owned by a good friend of ours. He sold the company a few years ago and under the new owner it has sadly gone very much downhill. So when we resume our canal travels we will be hiring from a different company but in the same town.

Attached are a few photos I've taken on our past trips.

 

[Dubnuh]

Beautiful photos -cant' wait to post some of my own.

 

[Marin]

The second and fourth shots were rather challenging for my wife because she had to keep backing the boat up for another run because i took me forever to get the horse into the right position and I got really picky with the camera position at the haunted bridge (yes, it's apparently haunted at night). Sixty foot boat, single engine, flat bottom, steered with a tiller, and until one gets the hang of them, an absolute bitch to back up (the boat, not my wife). But she eventually got very good at it.

First shot is one of my favorites. Taken on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal way up in the Yorkshire Dales. The working sheepdog, Bess (sadly no longer with us today) was owned by friends who joined us on this part of the trip. The husband is steering here. Second shot is Bess hitting the towpath for a romp. Or she saw some sheep.

PS-- We've done a fair amount of work in the PRC including Beijing.

 

[Dubnuh]

Great stuff! This holiday will be an especially nice respite from Beijing. We're on lock-down in the house today as the Air Quality is well above 400 -extremely hazardous.