County: Kilkenny Site name: Lacken Weir, Kilkenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KK019–028 Licence number: 01E0821
Author: Franc Myles, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Post-medieval weir
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 651319m, N 655903m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.651896, -7.241546
This licence was transferred from Sinéad Phelan in July for the purpose of monitoring works to the weir. The works consisted of the construction of a 20m-wide ramp, 55m in length, from the downstream riverbed level up to the weir crest. The ‘rock ramp fish pass’ is effectively an artificially constructed riverbed, designed to facilitate the passage of salmon during the spawning period.
The section of the weir against which the ramp was constructed had itself been rebuilt as part of the River Nore (Kilkenny city) drainage scheme; it appears, however, that the new arrangement was not appreciated by the salmon population, which found it difficult to negotiate the structure as they travelled upriver to spawn.
In any case, the reconstruction only impacted on the recently constructed section of the weir and the salmon have an unimpeded access upstream.
