St. Mullins Lock

Before continuing down through the lock, it will be necessary to wait for sufficient water to clear the bar at the exit from St. Mullins cut.  Boats drawing <1m / 3 ft can clear this 2 hours each side of high water – when the river has risen to the top of the lower lock gate sluices.  The fall of St. Mullins lock is 3.5m / 9.25ft.

St. Mullins Quay

0.75 km below the lock, at St. Mullins there is a shoal called the Scar, which also needs to be passed over 2 hours each side of high water.  The deepest channel from the Lock to St. Mullins is midstream.

On the reverse journey, upstream to St. Mullins, it is possible to wait at the end of the quay at the Steamer Hole until the tide is high enough to proceed up to the lock. There is also a slipway adjacent to the Mullacháin Café. 

St. Mullins Village & heritage sites

The road leads uphill to the heritage centre, motte and bailey, graveyard, abbey remains and well.  There is also a pub, shop and public toilets.  A mapboard, outside the graveyard outlines the Slí na Sláinte route (St. Mullins Slí na Sláinte walking route) and St. Mullins is also the starting/finishing point of the Barrow Way - long distance way marked way.

St. Mullins acquired its name from St. Moling, a 7^th century cleric, who became Bishop of Ferns and built a monastery here in 632AD.  In the 8^th century manuscript (The Book of Mulling) there is a plan of the monastery - the earliest known plan of an Irish monastery.

The monastery was plundered by the Vikings in 951, and again in 1138. Later, an abbey was built on the site and a 9^th century High Cross, stands outside the abbey remains and the adjacent medieval buildings.  St. Moling's Mill and Well are a short distance away.  There is also a penal altar, used in the days when the anti-Catholic penal laws were in force. A Norman motte, once topped by a wooden castle, stands outside the churchyard.

Dignitaries buried in the graveyard include: The MacMurrough Kavanaghs, former Kings of Leinster; Art MacMurrough Kavanagh (1418), who was poisoned at Ross, and Fr. Daniel Kavanagh, who is said to have had the gift of healing.   To cure toothache it is recommended to exchange a pinch of clay for some from Fr. Kavanagh's grave, say a prayer, pop the clay into your mouth and wash it out with water from St. Molings Well.

The complex includes a medieval church ruin, the base of a round tower and the former Church of Ireland church, built in 1811. Protestants and Catholics lie side by side in the churchyard, and when the Church of Ireland Bishop was thinking of closing down the church, the Catholic families joined the congregation, keeping it open.  In 1986, the Church was developed into a heritage centre www.stmullinsheritagecentre.com Tel.: + 353 (0)51  424913.