Most of this list sits on one waterway. The Grand Canal crosses north Kildare on its way west, and six of the seven places here are either on it or were built to serve it. Sallins is the obvious base, a harbour town with towpath running out of it in both directions and a fast train down from Dublin. Walk west and you reach the Leinster Aqueduct, built in 1783 to float the canal over the Liffey, with the Four Potts overflow, four linked stone basins that bled floodwater off the canal, a short stroll upstream. The same stretch can be done by water: the barge from Sallins up to Digby Lock takes about two and a half hours, and the lock is still worked by hand.
Robertstown sits further west at the canal’s summit, 85 metres up, a planned village with flat towpaths for walking and cycling. Ballynafagh Lake is the odd one among the canal places, an 1780s feeder reservoir that silted up, was abandoned, and is now a 45-hectare wetland protected as a Special Area of Conservation; the loop round it is 2.25km and easy going, and the birds are the reason to come.
The Figile River is the outlier, over on the Offaly side and running south to the Barrow, with trout and coarse fishing and a waymarked loop at Clonbullogue. Towpaths here are flat and open, fine in winter but exposed in wind, and the Four Potts is best seen after rain.
Grew up around the Grand Canal harbour and still the easiest base for towpath walks, the Leinster Aqueduct and a barge down to Digby Lock.
An abandoned canal reservoir turned 45-hectare wetland and Special Area of Conservation, circled by an easy 2.25km loop through alkaline fen and reed beds.
A slow two and a half hour barge trip out of Sallins, over the Leinster Aqueduct, to a lock still worked by hand after roughly 240 years.
Named in the 12th-century Book of Leinster and tied to Fionn Mac Cumhaill, it runs to the Barrow with reliable fishing and a waymarked loop.
Four interlocking stone basins built in the late 1700s to bleed floodwater off the canal, called unique in Ireland and a five-minute towpath stop.
6 of 7 shown — tap a pin for the place.
kildare
Sallins grew up around the Grand Canal, and the water is still its best feature – towpath walks, the Leinster Aqueduct carrying the canal over the Liffey, and barge cruises down to Digby Lock. Add a Tudor-styled Victorian railway station and a fast train to Dublin and you have an easy half-day out of the city.
Ballynafagh, kildare
Sallins, kildare
Kildare, kildare
Grand Canal towpath, kildare
Leinster Aqueduct, kildare
Robertstown, kildare
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