Santry River
Santry River | |
---|---|
Native name | Abhainn Sheantraibh (Irish) |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Harristown and Dubber, County Dublin |
Mouth | |
• location | Dublin Bay (Raheny) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• right | (artificial link from Naniken River) |
Santry River (Irish: Abhainn Sheantraibh) is a small watercourse on the north side of Dublin city, one of the forty or so watercourses monitored by Dublin City Council. It runs, mostly unculverted, from Harristown and Dubber near Dublin Airport, through Santry and Coolock, reaching the sea at Raheny, in a lagoon area inshore of Bull Island.
Course
The Santry River rises at an elevation of c. 80m, in the semi-rural areas of Harristown and Dubber in the part of
The river traverses Santry, where it forms a major feature of the former Santry Demesne, including the pond within what is now a public park adjacent to multiple housing and commercial developments. It then passes in turn under the old airport road and the M1 motorway. In Coolock, the river forms a central feature in the valley which cuts through the district, and features a pond, sometimes Coolock Lake, and a small cascade, running past the Stardust Memorial Park, and through the grounds of Cadbury's Ireland, where there is an EPA monitoring station and a tumulus on its banks, just before it passes under the Malahide Road.[1]
The Santry passes the site of a covered holy well and enters
Drainage link from Naniken River
The dotted line on the above sketch is an artificial link made by Dublin Corporation between the Santry River and the Naniken River, to reduce the flow of the latter and to allow handling of any flooding in either watercourse. It runs at the western end of Kilmore West in Coolock.[1]
Nearby catchments
In its upper reaches, the Santry drainage basin is bordered by that of the Wad River, which comes to the sea at the city end of Clontarf, and that of the Mayne River system, which concludes at Baldoyle Bay. Citywards, the Naniken basin lies closer to the city, while to the north and east two small streams drain parts of Edenmore and Raheny; these two watercourses are the Fox Stream, reaching the sea at the end of Fox's Lane, and the Blackbanks Stream, with its mouth where Howth Road and the James Larkin Road meet.
History
There was once a watermill, sometimes described as "The Mill of Raheny" on Watermill Road near the coast, and just downstream a small stone quay by the river's mouth.[1] The area including the mouths of the Naniken and Santry was for a time known as Raheny Strand, and oysters were sometimes harvested there.[1]
The river may, in whole or part, have been known as Skillings Glas.[1]
Studies
As part of the management of the river, the Santry river was one of the "third tier" rivers numerically mapped within the Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study, with floodplain hydraulics computed (the other rivers being the Carrickmines, Deansgrange or Kill of the Grange, Poddle, Camac, Finglas and Mayne, along with one of the two second-tier waterways, the Tolka).
Incidents
The Santry river has been noted for pollution incidents over the years, with industrial effluent and building material the most common causes (some of the latter once caused the main pond by the Stardust Memorial to be drained and reformed). There is a motorbike in the river in Stardust Memorial Park.
References
Footnotes
- ^ ISBN 9780956636393.
Sources
- Doyle, Joseph W. (2012) [2008]. Ten Dozen Waters: The Rivers and Streams of County Dublin (5th ed.). Dublin, Ireland: Rath Eanna Research. ISBN 978-0-9566363-4-8.
- Sweeney, Clair L. (1991). The Rivers of Dublin. Dublin, Ireland: ISBN 0-9505301-4-X.
- Dublin, Dublin City Council, Raheny Branch Library: Local History File
- Dublin, Dublin Corporation and contractors, 2002 et seq: The Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study