What the Four Potts are
Beside the Grand Canal near Digby Bridge in County Kildare sit four linked stone basins – the Big Pot, the Little Pot, the Boolan and the Skillet – built in the late 1700s to bleed floodwater off the canal before it could tear at the bank. Waterways Ireland calls the structure unique in Ireland. On a towpath walk it is easy to pass without noticing: a set of dark stone rings a few yards off the path, doing a quiet job that most canals managed with a plain spillway. The bridge itself went up in 1784, which dates the Potts to roughly the same stretch of canal-building.
It sits about midway between the Leinster Aqueduct and Digby Bridge, so most people meet it on foot or by bike along the Grand Canal Way rather than making a special trip.
How it works
It is an overflow, and a clever one. Water enters the outermost basin from the canal, then spills over each successive ring in turn. Each drop knocks the force out of the flow, so that by the time the water reaches the river it has slowed enough not to erode the bank. Gravity and stonework, no moving parts. The basins are connected below ground, though those tunnels are not open to the public.
The restoration
By the time Waterways Ireland turned to it, the structure was overgrown and leaking. A grant from the Historic Structures Fund paid for work over the winter of 2022/2023 to reinstate water-tightness, repoint the stonework and consolidate the rings so the whole thing could be reused for heritage outreach. It was a materials-led job, kept honest to the 18th-century original rather than rebuilt.
Visiting
There is not a lot to it, and that is the point: this is a five-minute pause on a longer walk or cycle, not a destination in itself. No toilets, no café, no benches – the nearest amenities are in Naas and Newbridge. The closest access is Digby Bridge on the R445, where roadside parking is limited; park considerately so you are not blocking the bridge. Stay on the towpath, mind the damp uneven ground around the basins, and keep dogs close to the water.
Time it for after a few days of rain, when you can watch the water work its way down from the Big Pot to the Skillet. In a dry spell there is little to see but the masonry.