The sewers of Dublin

Has anybody ever been into the Dublin sewers, or do you know anything about them?

Strange to think there are miles of underground routes criss-crossing the city, some no more than tunnels, others great trunks and thoroughfares. Presumably they mirror the road network, or at least, the historical roads of Dublin.

I've been reading about the history of the sewers of Dublin, there's a surprising wealth of information on their history: for example on the website greaterdublindrainage.com

http://www.greaterdublindrainage.com/history-of-dublin-drainage/

What I'd really like to know about, though, is the current layout of the sewer system, such as whether a map exists. And what do they look like? Can a person walk about down there comfortably? Are there paths and canals, like the sewers of Paris and London, or are Dublin's sewers smaller and do they feel more claustrophobic? Do they absolutely stink?

Someone must have been down there.

o1s1n

Saw an interesting video on YouTube of someone climbing down into a sewer at the bottom of Grafton Street and following the route of The Poddle underground if I remember correctly.

Exits at a really old drain you can see when the Liffey is low.

VonLuck

Dublin City Council has public records of all drainage. You can email them and request for maps of particular areas.

Doctors room ghost

You’d get gassed below in them sewers and that would be the end of you.fcukin lethal.
People working in them have to wear gas detectors and do a runner regular

Nodster

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

You’d get gassed below in them sewers

Worth a read about the Sheahan Memorial on Hawkins Street/Burgh Quay

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50020293/sheahan-memorial-burgh-quay-hawkins-street-dublin-2-dublin

BeerNut

There's an excellent little book called Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney which has a chapter on the Dublin sewage system and another on the underground rivers of The Liberties in which he goes exploring the Poddle under Dublin Castle and St Patrick's Cathedral.

o1s1n

Nodster wrote: »

Worth a read about the Sheahan Memorial on Hawkins Street/Burgh Quay

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50020293/sheahan-memorial-burgh-quay-hawkins-street-dublin-2-dublin

That was a really interesting read, thanks!

Coincidentally, for years there was an absolutely awful smell when you walked past that monument (not sure if it's still like that now) I always wondered was there a bit of a bottleneck around the sewers under where that monument is.

Here's the video I mentioned, worth watching the whole thing but you can see them actually going down into the sewers at 4:30.

Interestingly it shows you where they are in Dublin on a map while they go along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5ygnHSLKLY

o1s1n

o1s1n wrote: »

Here's the video I mentioned, worth watching the whole thing but you can see them actually going down into the sewers at 4:30.

Interestingly it shows you where they are in Dublin on a map while they go along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5ygnHSLKLY

Thanks for this, and to all the other people who gave information.

That video is fascinating. It would remind you of something from a Victor Hugo novel — with its subterranean galleries from which prisoners have made an escape, beneath the foundations of Dublin Castle.

There's a whole other Dublin beneath our feet, rich in history. I had no idea that underneath that lawn where I used to eat my lunch in Dublin Castle, with its Celtic motif, there lies the original Dubh Linn, an underground black pool. Amazing!

francois

Some more Poddle images here

http://www.hidden-dublin.com/poddle/river_poddle.html

odyssey06

Not quite sewers but this book covers rivers of Dublin and the underground culverted streams and their outlets

https://irishacademicpress.ie/product/the-rivers-of-dublin-new-revised-edition/

HeidiHeidi

Talk to the Garda Water Unit - every time an Obama or Clinton or Queenie comes to visit, they have to go down all the manholes and seal them.


Now there's a job!