The Lagan Canal

The building of the Lagan Canal was commenced in 1756 and within a year the first 6 miles from Belfast were completed. Problems abounded, mostly of a financial nature; regretfully it was to take a further 46 years to complete the project. The first engineer was called Thomas Omer; he had first worked on the Newry navigation and the project was completed by Richard Owen, an engineer who had worked on the Liverpool and Leeds Canal. This was a successful waterway and carried much freight during both the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Built to carry coal from the newly discovered coalfields of Tyrone to the expanding port of Belfast, it more often carried fuel in the opposite direction. It was finally abandoned in 1958.

Brian Cassels