Sensory Mapping the River Barrow, Monasterevin

What to Expect

Blueway Art Studio runs a Water Heritage Day workshop beside the River Barrow at Monasterevin on Sunday 23 August 2026, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Water Heritage Day falls on the closing Sunday of National Heritage Week and is given over to rivers, canals, wells and coastal heritage.

The session asks participants to map the course of the Barrow using all five senses rather than a conventional chart, working through what the river sounds, smells and feels like as well as how it looks. Alongside the mapping exercise the workshop covers the river’s ecology and the local heritage along it that is currently at risk. Monasterevin is a good place to run it: the town sits at the meeting of the Barrow, the Grand Canal and the Mountmellick branch, and the Barrow aqueduct carrying the canal over the river is one of the more striking pieces of Irish waterway engineering. The workshop is free, family-friendly and autism friendly, and meets beside Big Bad Barry in Riverside Park.

Good to Know

• Date: Sunday 23 August 2026, Water Heritage Day
• Time: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
• Meeting point: beside Big Bad Barry, Riverside Park, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare
• Price: free
• Suitable for families and described by the organiser as autism friendly
• Booking through Eventbrite via the National Heritage Week listing
• Contact: Blueway Art Studio, 086 732 9680 or hello@bluewayartstudio.ie
• Car parking available and the site is reachable by public transport

Getting There

Monasterevin is in west Kildare, just off the M7 about 60 km south-west of Dublin and signposted from the motorway. Riverside Park is beside the river in the town, with car parking available. Monasterevin railway station is on the Dublin Heuston to Portlaoise and Limerick line, a short walk from the town centre, though Sunday services are less frequent than weekdays. Kildare town is roughly 12 km to the east and Portarlington about 10 km to the west.