Report of the Committee on Galway and Shannon ports

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FROM THE GALWAY AND SHANNON PORTS, to Off the Maigue there is excellent anchorage between Cain Island and Grass Maigue Road. 
Island. 
The marks are Bunratty Castle in one with the eastern part of Cain Island, bearing N.N.E. 
and a remarkable ruin called Carrickgogunnell, just open to the right of Battle Island, S.S.E. 
\ E., 
in 3 to 31 fathoms at low water, muddy bottom. 
At this spot, which is seven miles below Limerick, large vessels should stop to wait a favourable opportunity of tide and wind to carry them up at once to the quays, as it is the only place where they can lie without taking the ground at low-water. 
The large timber ships generally discharge their deck and light loading here. 
1 hough beyond this, no vessel should attempt to proceed without a pilot, yet it may be satisfactory to give some description of the river between this place and Limerick. 
Grass Island, at the eastern entrance to the Maigue, is about 70 yards in Grass Island, length, N.E. 
and S.W., 
50 feet in width, and only three feet above the level of high-water springs : it is surrounded by rocks at low water 60 yards off, and to the westward a rocky spit extends 400 yards to the Maigue. 
A mud spit likewise runs off to the northward 500 yards, with foul ground outside, and the island is connected with the main to the southward by a mud-bank, which begins to dry at half ebb. 
Half a mile to the northward of Grass Island is Cain Island, about 500 yards Cain Island, in length, flat, and connected with the north shore by mud-banks at low-water. 
To the east of Cain Island is Greens Island, also flat, and somewhat smaller than Greens Island. 
Cain Island. 
Between these a creek runs up to Bunratty Castle, a remarkable Bunratty. 
old building, still in a state of good preservation. 
A quarter of a mile to the S. 
E. 
is Brier Island, also lying on the northern mud-bank, flat, grassy, and Brier Island. 
smaller than Green Island. 
Battle Island, lying S.W. 
of Brier Island a quarter of a mile, and nearly half Battle Island, a mile S.E. 
by E. 
of Grass Island, is in mid-channel, leaving a passage on either and Channels, side. 
That to the northward is most direct, but, being shallower, can only be used by small vessels. 
It is 500 feet wide between the low-water lines, and lies nearer to Battle Island than to Brier Island. 
That to the southward, between Battle and Grass Islands, though not wider, has deeper water. 
It scarcely deserves the name of island, for at high water it is a mere green spot barely above water. 
It stands, however, on a mass of rocks extending 500 yards all round; and beyond this, to the N.N.W. 
and S.S.E. 
are spits of mud, the north-western extremity of them is terminated by Logheen Rock, which con-Logheen Rock, tracts the channel to 500 feet. 
The leading mark through the South Channel is Bunratty house, just open east of Cain Island N. 
byE. 
till the two outer houses on Mellon Point are open to the southward of Grass Island when you may shape your course gradually round Battle Island till the tower on the Battle Island Scarletts is half-way between the two castles of Cratloe, bearing E. 
| S., 
and Channels, keeping this mark on will lead clear of the Hogshead and Slate Rocks, which lie three-eighths of a mile to the S.E. 
of Battle Island, and only uncover at low-water springs. 
E.S.E. 
1 i miles from Battle Island is a round tower resembling that on the Scarletts. 
Beeves, and built on the middle of a patch of rocks called the Scarletts, which at low water are connected with the south shore by a mud-bank.* 
Above this, and almost joined to it, is a spit of sand and mud more than half a mile in length; there are several rocks on it called the Whelps, which uncover at half-Whelps, ebb. 
The deepest channel lies to the northward of this spit, and along the edge of the mud bank on the northern side of this reach, it begins at Craig Island, which lies N.W. 
of the Scarletts, and the rocky point of which runs down to low water. 
There are several dangerous rocks in this channel just along the edge of the northern low-water fine. 
First is Shawn-a-Garra, which only shows at extraordinary springs ; and next Shawn-a-Garra. 
Crawford Rock, a large mass of limestone, which is only covered at spring Crawford Rock, tides. 
From the very contracted nature of the channel, which is here only about half a cable's length in width, and the tide (which at springs runs with great velocity) setting upon them, they are very dangerous. 
Farther E. 
is the rocky point of a small islet on which is a flagstaff, and close above this is the Flagstaff Rock. 
Kippen, an extensive patch of rocks which uncovers at low water, and has nine Kippen Rock. 

and 

* See Chart of the Shannon, sheet VII. 
257* K