Johnstown Bridge, Droichead Baile Sheáin, Co. Kildare

Droichead Baile Sheáin · Co. Kildare

A stone bridge, a royal canal, and a borderland between two counties.

Johnstown Bridge sits on the R402 in north Kildare, two kilometres from Enfield across the Meath border and a long flat road from anywhere else. The Royal Canal runs through the townland. A stone bridge carries the road over the Morell River. The village takes its name from the bridge, the bridge takes its name from the Johnstown lands, and the lands were named by whoever owned them first - nobody agrees when. What's certain is that people have been crossing this river here for a long time. The 1412 limestone cross at Johnstown Crossroads is still standing.

The canal is the load-bearer now. The Royal Canal Greenway - 130 kilometres of off-road towpath between Dublin and Longford - passes through or near the village, and it's the main reason anyone who doesn't live here comes out this way. Walkers, cyclists, anglers working the locks for roach and bream. The canal was built to compete with the Grand Canal and lost the commercial battle inside a generation, but the towpath has outlasted every barge that ever used it.

This is north Kildare borderland - the kind of place that belongs more to the landscape than to any county town. Enfield is a few minutes east. Edenderry is fifteen west. Johnstown Bridge is neither, which is either a problem or the point, depending on who you ask.

Population

683 (2016)

Walk score

Canal towpath east to Enfield, west toward Moyvalley

Founded

Market patent granted 17th c.; limestone cross 1412

Coords

53.4019° N, 6.8553° W

01 / 05

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The canal

The Royal Canal Greenway runs through here.

130 kilometres of flat towpath from Dublin to Longford. Johnstown Bridge sits near the Kildare-Meath border, where the canal crosses into open bog country. Walk east to Enfield. Walk west and the fields go quiet.

Walks & outings → 02 The bridge

Fine rubble stone, diagonal coping, 1798.

The bridge that gives the village its name crosses the Morell River with good-quality traditional stone masonry and a parapet wall added in the late 19th century. In 1798, Michael Aylmer led rebel forces against British troops here. The bridge outlasted both sides.

Stories & lore → 03 The GAA

Three county titles. Multiple All-Irelands. Small village.

Johnstownbridge won the Kildare Senior Football Championship in 1983, 1988, and 1989. The camogie team won All-Ireland titles at junior level (2015, 2017) and intermediate level (2018). Eleven combined senior county championships in total. The grounds are at Gurteen.

Stories & lore →

02 / 05

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Michael Aylmer's rebels at the bridge

The 1798 Battle

In the summer of 1798, when County Kildare was one of the centres of the United Irishmen rebellion, Michael Aylmer led rebel forces against British troops at Johnstown Bridge. The bridge was a strategic crossing - one of the few ways over the Morell River in north Kildare - and controlling it mattered. Aylmer's campaign in north Kildare lasted into July 1798, longer than most of the rebellion's other fronts. The bridge stood through all of it.

A curious old relic at the crossroads

The 1412 Cross

At Johnstown Crossroads stands a freestanding limestone cross dating to 1412. Lewis noted it as 'a curious old cross, the only relic to mark the site of an abbey that formerly existed here.' The abbey is gone. The cross is still there. Six hundred years is a long time to mark where something used to be.

Leader of the 1641 Rebellion, likely born nearby

Rory O'Moore

Rory O'Moore (c.1600-1655), the principal organiser of the 1641 Rebellion against English plantation policy, is associated with Balyna House, approximately four kilometres west of the village. O'Moore spent years coordinating the uprising across multiple Irish provinces. He was never captured. The connection to this corner of north Kildare is one of the more remarkable facts the landscape doesn't advertise.

The actor from the village

Damien Molony

Damien Molony, the Irish actor known for roles in Being Human and Ripper Street, is from Johnstownbridge. It's a small place to produce a working television actor. The village doesn't make a particular fuss about it.

03 / 05

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Royal Canal Greenway - Johnstown Bridge to Enfield East along the towpath to Enfield, flat the whole way. The canal is still water; the bog opens out on the south side. Enfield has a train station if you want a one-way walk.

~4 km one waydistance

1 hourtime

Royal Canal Greenway - west toward Moyvalley West from the village the towpath heads toward Moyvalley and eventually Mullingar. The lock-keepers' cottages appear at intervals. Anglers fish the locks for roach, pike, and bream. Bring something to sit on.

Open-endeddistance

As far as you gotime

04 / 05

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Canal walking at its quietest. Clear water, early light, no summer crowds on the towpath.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Royal Canal Greenway gets busy but the village stretch stays calm. Long evenings on the towpath are worth it.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Best fishing on the canal locks. The bog colours come in and the light goes low and flat.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The towpath gets soft after rain. Come anyway if you don't mind mud - you'll have the canal to yourself.

◐ Mind yourself

Getting there.

By car

Just off the M4 motorway. Dublin is under an hour. Enfield is 2km east on the R402; Edenderry is 15km west. The village sits right on the Kildare-Meath border.

By bus

Bus Éireann routes serving the Enfield corridor pass nearby. Enfield itself has more frequent services - the village is a short drive or cycle from the stop.

By train

Enfield station (Dublin-Sligo line) is 2km east. Regular services to Dublin Connolly and Maynooth.

Next on the tour

Co. Kildare

Allenwood

Ten minutes south. The Grand Canal, the Hill of Allen, the ghost of a peat-fired power station. Bog country at its most itself.

Co. Kildare

Derrinturn

West across the bog. A small village in Carbury with a church, a GAA ground, and the flat Kildare skyline in every direction.

Co. Kildare

Kilcock

Southeast along the Royal Canal. A proper town on the Kildare-Meath border, with the canal, a harbour, and a train station.

Co. Kildare

Kilshanchoe

Three kilometres south-west, a church-named crossroads where the county runs out into bog.