1814Linking Lmerick with Belfast by water was a logical project for the Directors of Inland Navigation. Engineer John Killaly surveyed the route between Lough Neagh and Lough Erne. The proposed cost of building the canal was £223,000.1814
1825The Ulster Canal Company was set up. John Killaly revised his original plans reducing the number of locks to 18 and the cost of the project to £160,050.1825
1831The works contract was awarded to William Dargan and digging of the canal began at the Charlemont end. The width of the locks was reduced to 3.66 metres. This was surprising when the minimum width on the dependent Newry and Lagan canals was 4.57 metres.1831
1840sThe Ulster Canal opened in 1842. The total cost was £230,000 but the canal failed to live up to expectations. Narrow locks, shortage of water and the fact that the canal was too narrow in places to permit boats to pass were some of the ongoing problems.1842
1851The Ulster Canal Company in financial difficulty. The Board of Works took control of the canal, and it was leased to William Dargan, its builder, for the sum of £400 per year. He operated a freight service between Enniskillen and Newry. 1851
1858Competition from the railways forced Dargan to surrender his lease to the Dundalk Steam Navigation Company which had no success running the canal either.1858
1865The Board of Works took over the canal again and over the next eight years spent £22,000 on trying to improve the navigation.1865
1873The canal was re-opened. During the 1870s the tolls averaged £163 per year while the annual maintenance costs averaged £1,250. 1873
1878-1880Tolls were averaging £87 per year, and there was no traffic west of the summit level. Two years later a government commission recommended the canal be sold but no buyer could be found.1878
1888The Lagan Navigation Company was persuaded to take over the canal. Traffic peaked on the canal with the revenue from tolls increasing from £150 per year in the 1880s to over £700 in the 1890s, but running costs remained high. 1888
1900sThe canal became derelict. The last lighter entered the canal on 29th October 1929., and the canal was officially abandoned in 1931. 1900
2018Waterways Ireland dredged the River Finn at the entrance to the Ulster Canal at Wattlebridge and constructed a new bridge at Derrykerrib to allow boat passage to Castle Saunderson.2018
