Moneypenny's Lockhouse by Newry Canal from Craigavon Tourism
website. Capture the life of a lock keeper and the lightermen
who navigated the canal with a visit to a restored lockhouse, bothy
and stables along the Newry Canal. Here, visitors can see the bothy
where the lightermen would have lodged and find out about the
history of the canal and the wildlife in the locality.
The Newry Canal The Newry Canal was the first summit level canal
in the British Isles. It opened for traffic in March 1742. Eighteen
miles in length, it extended through a series of locks from Newry
to Whitecote Point, 2km south of Portadown. The last lock before
the canal joins the River Bann is known as Moneypenny's Lock. The
Moneypennys were lock keepers for 85 years and operated the lock
gates. They also took note of the barges, which passed through the
lock carrying a great variety of cargoes including linen cloth,
farm produce, coal, grain and flax seed. However, with the growth
of the railway network, the use of the Newry Canal began to decline
and the last known commercial journey through the lock was in
1936.
Moneypenny's is 4km from Portadown town centre via the Ulster
Way footpath. To get where you park your vehicle, take Gilford Road
out of Portadown. Drive almost 2 miles and take road on right at
first crossroads. There is a shop/petrol station nearby, just
before the crossroads. The parking spot is approx 0.5 miles from
here on the right.
Park at N54 23.751 W006 24.066
You will see signposts for the Ulster Way.
Walk along the route signposted for Portadown. This is an
attractive walk between the Cusher and the Newry Canal. The IP can
be found written on a post close to the given co-ords approx 15m
North West of the circular area with BBQ. Please be extremely careful of muggles at both
places. The given clue is for the final
cache.
THE CACHE is a medium sized plastic container with usual
swappable goodies and log book. Cache co-ordinates were taken as an
average of several readings.