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 count ...

, Ireland, a tributary of the

River Liffey The River Liffey ( Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the Riv ...

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 Punchestown Racecourse is located in the parish of Eadestown, between the R410 and R411 regional roads near Naas, County Kildare, in Ireland. It is known as the home of Irish Jumps Racing and plays host to the annual Punchestown Irish National ...

, passing Craddockstown Golf Club,

Naas Naas ( ; ga, Nás na Ríogh or ) is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. In 2016, it had a population of 21,393, making it the second largest town in County Kildare after Newbridge. History The name of Naas has been recorded in th ...

Industrial Estate. It meets with a tributary stream outside

Johnstown, County Kildare Johnstown () is a village in County Kildare, Ireland. It is located north of Naas just off the N7 at junction 8. It is approximately from Dublin city centre, and is a home for commuters working in Dublin and Naas. Most of the housing was b ...

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 in ...

, then Morell 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 ...

and then 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 ...

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

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

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, tol ...

(''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'' morp ...

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 compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

awarded the Morell "Moderate" status for its suitability for

macroinvertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

References

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