Blue Way of County Tipperary I

Today we are off to the River Suir again, ready to start a glorious 21 km (14 mile) walk which I have completed in the past, not in a single go, though. I also recommend Treacy’s Blueway Bike Hire for those who prefer cycling…

Suir Blueway is a 53 km kayaking trail from Carrick-on-Suir to Cahir and a 21km walking and cycling trail from Carrick-on-Suir to Clonmel along the river Suir.

A few words about the history of the trail. The Greenways are built on the former railway lines. The Blueways are built on the former towpath for horse-drawn boats.

Carrick-on-Suir has a long history of river transport. From the mid-eighteenth century until the early 1900-s horse-drawn boats were a familiar sight. The boats were often towed in pairs with a team of twelve horses yoked together, four men in charge. An old photograph below is linked to the blog post you might enjoy reading. The photograph was taken from the Gashouse Bridge, Clonmel.

You will see a good few remarkable buildings and ruins along the walk. Davin’s tower in the opening picture is a folly built by Lord Waterford in 1820-s. It is overlooking the Davin’s salmon weir – the science of constructing such weirs was brought to Ireland by the Franciscans. 

I have arranged my pictures by location and season. In today’s blog we start out in Carrick-on-Suir, and the season is Summer.

River otter is a common resident. A family of otters live at Carrick-on-Suir marina which is quite a busy place. River otters usually enter water only to hunt or travel. These three otters looked like they were traveling with a purpose.

I hope these cute ducklings escaped the sharp teeth…

We might sit down and rest our feet. Some of the benches have plaques – “In memory” or “Donated by”.

Birds are always present – robins, wrens, stonechats, thrushes and finches. Highly territorial Kingfishers can be seen once in a while. I have never got a photograph.

Heron is hunting in the shallow water. I always smile at his prehistoric looks and unnecessary panic with which he takes off: he is in the middle of the river and we humans don’t fly. Tainted conscience of a predator? Guilty of eating little ducklings, may be? 😉

Swans don’t panic. They have a vegetarian diet and clean conscience. They move with dignity and mind their own business.

We are almost halfway to Kilsheelan at this point. Hope you enjoyed the walk.

The Carrick-on-Suir Clancy Brothers Art Festival takes place on the June bank holiday weekend each year. Here is an hour long concert for you to listen while you are getting ready for the next leg of our adventure.

See you soon!

 

Have a happy week!

92 comments

    1. Thank you, Diana! This is my favorite walk, especially around Kilsheelan. You will see why when I post the pictures 🙂 Hope all is well ❤

  4. So green and lush, at times I miss the particular green of Ireland & the UK, but not the winters, and I now complain about our winters :- o)

    A definite sign of age :- o)

    1. Haha, what is ‘winter’ ? I was trying to organize my pictures by seasons, but soon realised that there is little difference 🙂

  8. Beautiful photos as usual. I loved that house with the red door could so live there and I would want the horses in another photo. I have a strong affinity to horses. Your country has so much history and interesting facts to accompany the history as well as the photos of yesteryears. The photo of the flowers is stunning. Those little scallywag of otters. We have them here as well. They are sometimes comical to watch. I love the bird photos. I can watch birds all day long. Swans I don’t want to get near when they have babies as I was bitten by one of them as a child and that memory will never leave me lol. The heron we have here also and they are a delight to watch. Thanks for another interesting tour Inese. Much apprecieated. Have an excellent day. ❤

    1. Thank you so much, Joseph. Glad you enjoyed the walk. It is so nice to walk along the body of water, be it a river or a sea. When we are done with the Blueway, I will take you to the sea 🙂
      Yes, the otters are fun to watch. I got a closeup this summer, at another river. The otter was trying to catch a little duckling and was distracted by our photo session. The duckling escaped.
      You are right to stay away from the swans. They are huge and they know it 🙂
      Thank you again for joining the walk Have a great week. ❤

  9. Great post, Inese! That’s a wonderful and beautiful walk but 21 km… let me think about it! 😉

    1. Thank you Herman! I didn’t walk 21 km – I agree with you that it is too much haha. The longest I walked was 8 km. In this blog we walked 5 km. It helps when there are two walkers and two cars 🙂

    1. Bruce, thank you. My plan is to post five blogs about this stretch of the river. So many photographs taken over the years…

    1. Thank you! I have only seen two duck families this year. I think they choose to nest in a safer place. The otters are not the best neighbors for the ducks.

  13. Very nice. The house with plants grow on the wall and roof look very cozy. I can imagine that the plants probably provide good heat insulation for summer and winter. The heron took off picture is cool.

    1. Thank you! The cute cottage is a rental property. Beautiful location.
      The herons are my favorites to watch, especially their takeoffs 🙂

  15. A most enticing walk finishing up with the splendid Clancy Brothers. There is something thought provoking about a trail beside a long-lasting river created from two former man-made tracks.

    1. Thank you Derrick! Next time I will post a few older pictures. They paved the trail a couple of years ago. I love the ‘before look’ better.

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