EARLIER THIS WEEK I VISITED LEIXLIP [COUNTY KILDARE]-148581

Early this week I visited Leixlip and I must admit that my memory of the town does not correspond with what I saw. The town is very much smaller than I had expected.

 

Leixlip is a town in north-east County Kildare, Ireland. Its location on the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water has marked it as a frontier town historically: on the border between the ancient kingdoms of Leinster and Brega, as an outpost of The Pale, and today on Kildare's border with Dublin.

 

Leixlip is connected to the Irish railway network on the Dublin-Sligo railway line, running from Dublin Connolly to Sligo, with two stations, Leixlip (Louisa Bridge), opened on 1 September 1848, and Leixlip (Confey), opened on 2 July 1990, located at either end of the town. While InterCity services to Sligo do not serve the town, the Maynooth/Longford Commuter services do, the frequency of the trains peaking in the mornings and evenings. Some of these services continue outbound to Mullingar and Longford. Leixlip has the distinction of being the only town in the Republic of Ireland with two operational train stations

 

Leixlip's main attraction in the past was the Salmon Leap, from which the town is named, a 5-metre waterfall on the Liffey just upstream from the then village. This was a common destination for Dubliners wanting a day out in the country, and the Salmon Leap Inn was built to refresh them. A hydroelectric dam was completed in 1945 and its lake flooded the waterfall. The dam generates 4 Megawatts.

 

Local Leixlip employers include Intel, who own a complex consisting of Fabs (fabrication plant) 10 & 14 (IFO), 24, and 24-2 of Intel's manufacturing operations. Hewlett-Packard is also a local employer.

Done