Mayo history: Nimmo’s description of Killala Bay in 1813
By Tom Gillespie
THE pioneering Scottish engineer Alexander Nimmo came to Ireland in 1811 and remained in the country until the time of his death in 1832.
During this time he was employed by a number of government bodies in various key road and pier building projects.
Initially he worked for the government-appointed Bog Commission. When his term with that body was over in 1813, he remained on to take up a number of private commissions in various parts of the country.
Clifden born author Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill, in her 2006 book ‘Alexander Nimmo and The Western District’, described that he was responsible for overseeing the construction of over 40 piers between 1922 and 1824, particularly in the west coast.
One of his many reports featured Killala Bay, which Nimmo said was a square of five miles each way; the east side is a low limestone shore, the west more varied and elevated, with cliffs of sandstone alternately with limestone, and has various inlets on that side of the bay; there are also several extensive rocky shoals; the bottom is a broad shallow strand, cut off by a range of sand hills from an interior lagoon, mostly dry at low water, between Killala and the River Moy.
There are two openings across this range of sand hills, viz, the bars of Killala and of the Moy. The former has four feet at ordinary ebb, and on the whole is considered the safest, being protected in the worst winds by the land to the westward.
The bar of the Bay after great floods has deeper water, but being more liable to shift is not to be depended on; and in droughts of summers often fordable.
It is only a few years since the bar of the Bay was attempted by vessels of any burthen. Sloops now usually ascend to within a mile of Ballina, and measures are in progress to bring them up to the town, by cutting a passage across the limestone ledges that obstruct the channel of the Moy.
The work has been carried out by the funds of the employment of the poor, and promises to be of much benefit by bringing the export market so far into the interior.
Heretofore vessels for Ballina entered the Killala Bay, and passed by the channel behind Bertra Island to the pool of the Moyne, near the abbey of that name, whence lighters conveyed the cargoes up to the town of Ballina; since the direct navigation was opened that town has rapidly increased in trade and population, and is now best on this coast.
Killala is also a town of some consequence, and exports a good deal of corn from the barony of Tyrawley. During the herring season it is much frequented by the fishing-boats, and the herrings frequently get within the bar.
A material improvement was effected on the harbour of Killala by the construction of a dam to increase the back-water, and a direct cut through the strand below, which has increased the depth of water at the pier.
There are no other towns in this neighbourhood; and these were of large confined almost entirely to the supple of the barony of Tyrawley in Mayo, and the adjoining part of Tyreagh in Sligo; the roads to the interior, across the line of the Ox Mountains, being so excessively hilly and inconvenient as to be nearly impassable for carriages of any burthen.
This defect is now in a fair way of removal, as a new and level line of road is nearly completed from Killala to Ballina, Foxford and Swinford, by which the interior country may convey its produce to these seaports; and the road is on a scale to admit a mail-coach to communicate towards the Royal Canal and Dublin.
Another line of road has been opened along the north shore of Mayo, as far as Belderrig and the bounds of Erris, which is intended to connect to Broadhaven.
A line of carriage road has also been executed on the east of the Moy, from the coast road at Inniscroan on the east side of the bay to the foot of the pass of Lough Flat. This line is of great importance to the fisheries, as giving access to the country near these mountains and the interior from the fishing places of Pullagheny and Enniscroan.
A branch of the same road is also in progress towards Foxford through the district of Coolcarney, which is also opened by another line to Ballina.
The roads from the town of Ballina to the quays below it have also been levelled, and similar improvements made at Killala. These works have been made at the expense of Government, from the funds for the employment of the poor; their importance in giving access to the seaports of Killala Bay is evident.
In addition to these, the grand jury of Mayo had, some years ago, opened a road from Castlebar to Ballina, across the narrow part of Lough Conn; had begun another from Ballina towards Swinford, one the east of the Moy, and had also, by means of a loan from the Consolidated Fund, made considerable progress in opening a carriage road from Castlebar through the upper part of Tyrawley into the extremity of Erris. This road is now nearly completed by means of the Government funds, and is of great consequence to the towns of Tyrawley, which, from their vicinity, are the natural market of Erris, and are equally accessible by this road.
The whole Bay of Killala has been carefully and minutely surveyed and sounded, and proper sailing marks adopted for the bars and shoals; this chart is now ready for the engraver.
The merchants of Ballina, having employed me professionally to examine the river Moy, and suggest the means of improving the navigation, I am enabled to lay down the result of the chart of the Bay of Killala, constructed for the use of the fisheries, through the survey of the river within the bar was made without any expense to the Commissioners. This chart, from the active spirit of improvement afloat in this place, promises to be of great importance to navigation; and I trust the Board will lose no time in having it made public.
Most of the bay is a good turbot bank, especially between the bars; also off Trakel about August, following the sand-eels, which abound in those strands.