Why canal cruising through rural Ireland is a journey through time as much as space – and there’s no such thing as too slow

The taxi from Athy, southwest of Dublin, drops us at the tiny village of Vicarstown, in Ireland’s County Laois, where, below the canal bridge, several long, narrow boats are moored side by side like pencils in a box.

It is late in the afternoon after a long day of travelling, but Philip Crean, of Barrowline Cruisers, gives our family of four an introduction to the operation of the simple controls, and to the basic rules and courtesies of canal cruising.

Here is the control for the pump that drains the shower, and there is the hatch giving access to a little handle for greasing the propeller shaft at the end of the day. We must keep right when passing other boats, but otherwise cruise down the middle of the canal.

“But if you meet one boat in the week, that’s all it will be,” he says.

This is an early indication of how different narrow boating will be in Ireland from in England, where, in summertime, long queues sometimes form at flights of locks.

Barrowline is the largest operator on Ireland’s Grand Canal, yet has merely four boats, and only two of those are operating this season.