M50 to Hazelhatch

After passing the M50, I quickly got the sense of leaving the city behind. But not before passing this odd little setup. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be advertising this guy’s business or if it serves some other purpose.

Anyway, I quickly came to Clondalkin where I nipped into a garage to get myself something cold to drink – I was getting a bit bored of water. This would have been an ideal spot to stop for a bit of lunch and there was a pub there that would probably have done at least a toasty for a spot of lunch.

After this interruption I continued on towards Hazelhatch but it was becoming fairly apparent that I wasn’t going to make it to Sallins which was always going to be a bit of a stretch at 46 km.

At the next lock, there was the first of these odd-looking lock-houses. This was part of the stretch of canal built by Thomas Omer and he must have had rather grand plans for the locks as these are very substantial particular in comparison to the equivalent cottages on the Royal Canal. These would have been very large for a lock-keeper in the day so perhaps the ground floor was used for some commercial purpose such as toll-collecting.

The going was still good with a well-made path along the canal and there were still quite a few people out walking and cycling although perhaps not as many as before.

The bridge ahead turned out to be a pedestrian bridge and there was a greed route signposted to cross it. I didn’t bother and just stuck to the tow-path.

At the 13th lock, there were a few mill buildings. The lock-house was a couple of hundred metres up the canal which struck me as a little odd. The Royal lock-keeper cottages are normally right by the lock – maybe this was a lesson learned.

From here on, the going got significantly worse. Due to the very heavy recent rainfall, the canal was very full and the banks weren’t in terribly good condition. So there was quite a bit of flooding on the path and in places there was water flowing from the canal into surrounding fields.

I came across this interesting old bridge in the middle of nowhere. Probably this was someplace that had become depopulated over the years and the bridge was only used by one or two farmers nowadays.

Yes another of the strange lock-houses and this one is in particularly bad condition. It is odd that all of the lock-houses are derelict and in such bad condition. The equivalents on the Royal seem to be very much still in use.

This is an overflow stream from the canal and the water was fairly roaring down it.

At this stage, it was well past 2:30 and there was no way I was going to make another 13 kilometres to Sallins before dark. In any case, I had kind of had enough of walking with a tally of 33 kilometres for the day so I decided enough was enough at Hazelhatch.

There was a lovely looking pub there but I didn’t partake due to having a train to catch and I would have to drive home from the station at the other end so I headed for the railway station which was about half a kilometer up the road on the right-hand side of the canal.