The Morell River () is a river in

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

, Ireland, a tributary of the River Liffey.

Name

The name of the river derives from William Morrell, formerly a landowner in the area. It first appears (spelled ''Morrel'') in the ''Statistical Survey of the County of Kildare'' (1807).

Course

The Morell rises in Slieveroe, a few kilometres west of Blessington Lake. It flows south-to-north through Punchestown Racecourse, passing Craddockstown Golf Club and Naas Industrial Estate. It meets with a tributary stream outside Johnstown, County Kildare and is bridged by the N7 road. It continues northwards and unites with another tributary south of Palmerstown House Golf Club. The Morell then passes under the Grand Canal via an aqueduct and under the

Dublin–Cork railway line The Dublin–Cork Main Line is the main InterCity railway route in Ireland between Dublin Heuston and Cork Kent. In 2018, 3.46 million passengers travelled on the line, a 10% increase from 2017 figures. About The line is one of the longest ...

, then unites with the

Painestown River The Painestown River ( ga, Abhainn Baile an Phaghanaigh) is a river in County Kildare, Ireland, a tributary of the Morell River. Name The name is derived from the Painestown townland, located in the Kill civil parish. Course Painestown River ...

. The combined flow passes under the Morell Bridge, where there is an

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

monitoring station. The Morell drains into the Liffey about 1 km south of Straffan and about 470 m downstream from the Straffan weir.

Wildlife

There is substantial canopy cover provided by

maple sycamore ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', known as the sycamore in the British Isles and as the sycamore maple in the United States, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large deciduous, broad-leaved tree, to ...

(''Acer pseudoplatanus'') and European alder (''Alnus glutinosa''), which allows spawning by the resident population of

Brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...

and migratory populations of

sea trout Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are sewin (Wales), peel or peal ...

(''Salmo trutta'') and

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

(''Salmo salar'') A study by the

Water Framework Directive Ireland Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

awarded the Morell "Moderate" status for its suitability for macroinvertebrates.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morell River Liffey (system) Rivers of County Kildare