River · Ireland
Shannon
The Shannon is the longest river in Ireland and cuts the island almost in two. It widens into big lakes on its way and finally reaches the Atlantic Ocean through the broad Shannon Estuary.
Picture credit: Santiperez (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Sarah777 (Public domain) · A bit iffy (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Shannon?
The river starts here: Shannon Pot on Cuilcagh Mountain, Ireland.
It ends in the Shannon Estuary, Atlantic Ocean.
Countries on the river: Ireland.
The story behind it
The Shannon starts at a small dark pool called the Shannon Pot, high on Cuilcagh Mountain, and grows as it slides south through soft green countryside. On the way it spreads out into three big lakes, Lough Allen, Lough Ree and Lough Derg, where swans drift and anglers hunt for pike and trout. Around the water lie wide peat bogs, home to curlews and to plants that grow nowhere else in the country. Boats have used the river for over a thousand years, and there are still old monasteries on its islands, like Clonmacnoise, where monks once wrote books by candlelight. Today holiday barges chug past the reeds all summer. A power station at Ardnacrusha uses the river's flow to make electricity, and in very wet winters the Shannon floods the low fields on either side.
Questions children ask
How long is the Shannon?
The Shannon is about 360.5 kilometres long. No other river in Ireland comes close, and much of that length is taken up by wide lakes.
Which country does the Shannon flow through?
The Shannon belongs to Ireland and runs from the north-west down to the south-west of the island. It passes eleven counties on the way to the sea.
Where does the Shannon flow into?
The Shannon flows into the Atlantic Ocean through a long funnel called the Shannon Estuary. There the fresh water mixes with salt water and dolphins come to hunt.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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