Weir - fish

The National Monuments Service's description

In gently undulating low-lying pasture, 100m upriver from Monaster Bridge (LI031-009001-), on the Camoge River, which also forms a townland boundary between Monaster North and South. Cistercian monastery of Monasteranenagh (LI031-050004-) lies 145m to SSE. Annotated ‘Eel Weir’ on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch map 110m E of Monaster Bridge. On this map the eel weir is depicted running off an island in the middle of the river which contains the remains of a 'Watch Ho.' associated with the eel weir.
A second eel weir (LI031-050002-) lies 50m downriver to W. According to Power (1930, 46), ‘At the suppression, in 1540, the abbey [Monasteranenagh] was found possessed of a great estate – sixteen townlands, a mill and watercourse with eel and pike weirs in the Camoge’. Westropp (1889, 238), refers to a type of medieval fish trap in the vicinity of Monasteranenagh Abbey (LI031-050003-): ‘There are some remains of a detached building near the Cammogue, perhaps a mill, though the country people say that a rope from a net in the river rang a bell in it when a salmon was captured’. Remains of stone built fish weir visible in the Camoge River to the E of the bridge opposite Monasteranenagh Abbey. According to local information the river was last dredged at this point during drainage works in 1978.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 22 March 2021

References

Westropp, T.J. 1889 History of the Abbey and Battles of Monasteranenagh, Croom, County Limerick, 1148-1603. The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland 9, 232-238.

Power, P. 1930 The Cistercian abbeys of Munster (contd.). Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 35, 43-6.