tarboat's photos with the keyword: lough allen

Unusual 'frog-free' lettered brick. On the shores of Lough Allen in the area between Tarmon and Drumkerran was a place called the “Jetty”. The jetty was a wooden harbor used by the Limerick Steamship Company for distributing goods transported by boat from Limerick. Close by, stands the chimneystack of “ Lough Allen Brick Works ” a factory set up in the early 19th century by the Limerick Steamship Company. The raw material, clay and shale which were used in the brick making were mined a short distance from the jetty, and coal used in the baking of the brick was taken from nearby coal pits. Fire bricks, pipes and tiles were manufactured here until closure in the 1920s.

The Lough Allen Brickworks at Spencer Harbour on Lough Allen was established in the early nineteenth century and operated until the 1920s. Today all that remains are a number of derelict cottages and timber loading jetties with a single chimney. The works was supplied with coal from the nearby Arigna mines and bricks were shipped out across the lock and then the Lough Allen Canal to the Shannon. An example of the bricks produced at this works can be seen here .