Albert Lock

Below Jamestown the river is not navigable for cruisers, so boats take the Jamestown Canal, a 2.6 km cut that the Shannon Commissioners built in 1848 to replace an older, smaller canal of 1799. Albert Lock, near its lower end, dates from the same works, and so does the lock-keeper’s cottage beside it. Its keeper is on duty in the usual Shannon lock hours, off for lunch between 13:00 and 14:00, on +353 71 963 7715. Pay with 2 Smart Card units or €1.50 in cash, and make sure everyone on deck or on the lock side wears a lifejacket or buoyancy aid. Two bridges, Corlara and Ardanaffrin, cross the cut above the lock. Coming upstream, Drumsna is a short detour up the river loop just before the canal; paddlers on the Blueway land and carry their boats around the lock.