Let me take you on a walk along the best part of Dublin’s Grand Canal. There are no new bridges or constructions to take away from what Patrick Kavanagh wrote about in his great poem. From the river Liffey, you can walk up-stream for a good few kilometres before reaching the ominous Kilmainham Gaol.

Most of the bridges were built in the 1700s, and the foliage and marine life that has gathered since then makes for a most atmospheric experience.

On a Summer’s day, as the sun shines down on the people of the canal, I stand and look from McQuay Bridge and think of where the canal flows. It goes under MacMahon Bridge, through the Grand Canal docks and into the Liffey opposite the Point Theatre.

I think of the blocks laid for buildings and bridges from centuries before in this dockland setting, and realize what character is there. With this in mind, I turn and cross the locks of the McQuay Bridge, made of wood and steel and still in use today.

There is a glorious array of lily pads covering the whole waterway, which looks like a scene from a Monet painting. I pass the new Schoolhouse Hotel and stroll up to Percy Place, before I reach my first piece of historic sculpture, the crossed guns of the commemorative stone monument remembering the battle of Mount Street.

Written in Irish on the front are the historic words, which you can read in English, if you squeeze around the back, ‘In commemoration of the battle of Mount street bridge and in honour of the Irish Volunteers who gallantly gave their lives in this area in defence of the Irish Republic, Easter week 1916, remember their sacrifice and be true to their ideals, God rest the brave’.

This stone is set on McKenny Bridge and every bridge on the canal has two locks. From here we can see extensive reeds lining the sides of the waterway, casting a shadow over the canal visible through the water’s surface.

I reach the Huband Bridge, built in 1791, marked by the Pepper Canister church and then walk up to Herbert Place where I see a metal sculpture of a cart-horse and boy. There are pea-hens darting around the reeds here and their red bills pick at abundant vegetation.

Ducklings curl up in the sun along the banks. Their mother wards me off as I stop and stare. What a perfect place to settle, I think as back gardens run right to the water’s edge.

At Baggot Street, the MacCartney Bridge, built in 1791, leads to the Mespil Hotel and the famous iron sculpture of the great Patrick Kavanagh, who sits nonchalantly on a public bench. I stop and share a moment with Patrick and wonder if he’d mind the litter along the route that I have noticed on this summer’s day.

As I sit I see the party barge ‘Riasc’ and its new wooden gangway. I walk up to Eustace Bridge, 1791 again, and up to Lesson Street Bridge with the two great metal pipes built by Ross and Walpole engineer’s in 1907.

Here the reeds get longer as I reach Charlemont place at Harcourt Street. I stop again to look at the house of the artist Sarah H. Purser who lived from 1848 to 1943, which is just across the road from the Garda Station. The Luas now crosses over the canal and the Hilton Hotel Towers over the water path way.

Ranelagh is just down the road and holds all the delights of a village with its old-world atmosphere. The weeping willows hide the swans and I carry on up Cheltenham Place to another landmark, the red Portobello Bridge at Rathmines.

At this point I end my Grand Canal walk. The Canal continues on its journey past the Cathal Brugha military barracks to Emmet Bridge with Griffith College on its banks to Dolphin Barn, the Herberton Bridge another Luas line, Lucan and then winds off through Ireland’s landscape for 256 kilometres before joining the River Shannon.

Enjoy the locks, old stones and sense of enchantment that is the Grand Canal.