self drive boat on rivers in Ireland

In 2012 we rented the smallest boat from https://www.leboat.com/boating-vacations/ireland/shannon. We went from Carrick-on-Shannon to Portumna and enjoyed our trip very much. Having a small boat we were able to take detours under low bridges. The weather was so good we actually had to under roof two days because it was too hot to sit outdoors. It was easy to find mooring in quiet places close to shopping.

We had previously (2009) boated in Scotland and we have later (2023) boated on the Thames. Both of these were considerably colder, but still great trips. On the Thames we had a bit of trouble finding good mooring places.

In 2016 we spent a week on a 35' LeBoat on the Canal du Midi (France) followed by a week on the Shannon. LeBoat upgraded us to a 37' boat and we did a return route from Carrick-on-Shannon, making it as far south as Clonmacnoise before returning. This was early May and the weather for both charters was absolutely perfect, if not downright hot. I'll send you a link to my trip report.

I've already planned a May 2025 trip that will be a Portumna based return trip, going as far north as Athlone (just because we love Sean's Bar) and all over Lough Derg. If Facebook is to believed, I've planned the overnight locations to have nearby trad music on every night but one.

One way trips are complicated because the shuttles from DUB or SNN are rather spendy, so we just get a rental car and park it at the base. There's no car hire places near either C-on-S or Portumna. We need a car anyway since we include more than the charter in the vacation. There are other companies based in C-on-S and Banagher, but LeBoat has always been our choice.

We spend several weeks per year sailing in the Salish Sea, so we are a bit biased towards boating.