Clonsilla & the Deep Sinking

Between Blanchardstown and Clonsilla the canal runs through the Deep Sinking, a cutting blasted out of a limestone quarry when the route was bent south so that the Duke of Leinster's Maynooth would be on the canal. From the water it is one of the most striking stretches of the whole navigation, with the towpath high above on a narrow, uneven and often muddy trail. It also has a dark history: on 25 November 1845 the passage boat Longford, bound for Longford, ran into the bank near Clonsilla and capsized, and fifteen people drowned. Today Clonsilla is a busy suburb where the canal and the Maynooth railway run side by side past the station, and the line to M3 Parkway branches off. Luttrellstown Castle, once a Guinness family house, is now a hotel and golf resort.