In 1840, work began on a canal to link two large lakes in western Ireland, Lough Mask and Lough Corib. But the project was cursed from the beginning. First, a channel was dug for the canal on a bed of limestone, which is porous. When the canal was filled, the water quickly drained away!
A new bed was laid in the channel. But now workers found that one of the lakes was actually a few feet higher than the other. The canal had been built at an angle! When the canal was filled, the water ran downhill into the lower lake.
No ship could ever be expected to travel uphill, so the canal was abandoned. A bridge built over the channel, and a dock constructed nearby, remain unused. Perhaps nature never intended the two lakes to be joined.
