SEA ROUTES ACROSS IRISH CHANNEL.
In the same report he states the relative advantages of various routes of communication across the Irish Channel:—
“A further extension of the intercourse between Scotland and Ireland could be made with much advantage to both by a regular establishment of packets between Ardrossan, Troon, or Dunure in Ayrshire, and Larne in the county of Antrim. Between the two last places, viz., Dunure and Larne, the distance would only be about sixty miles, being ten miles shorter, and unquestionably much safer, than the passage from Holyhead to Dublin.
“Under all the views of this subject, from the greater contiguity of Portpatrick and Donaghadee than of Lochs Ryan and Larne, and the former places having more immediate access to the open sea than the latter, and also from the intercourse being now fully organised by long establishment, it were perhaps better, even at a much greater expense, to continue the present system than to change it. Portpatrick harbour may be rendered incomparably better by the plan now proposed, and Donaghadee is also capable and stands much in want of improvement, by an extension of its piers and the erection of a permanent light to direct the packets into the harbour under night.”