As one of only two significant towns on the route of the Ulster Canal, Clones was a significant point on the canal. It is also the location of the "restored" Ulster Canal, the 800m section of canal from a new marina adjacent to the Ulster Canal Stores west to the border with Fermanagh/Northern Ireland.
The town was also a significant location on the railway network, being a junction on the railway with lines approaching from the east from Portadown via Armagh City and Monaghan town and from Dundalk via Castleblayney. To the west, the mainline continued to Enniskillen with a branch heading south to Cavan town, where it met the Midland Great Western Railway. Little remains of the railway today, except the former railway roundhouse, one of a small number to have existed on the island of Ireland and the former goods store of the Ulster Railway.
At the western end of the new canal, the route to the border takes a new alignment as there is now a house immediately adjacent to the canal across the border in Fermanagh that would make restoration on the original route difficult. This includes a new aquaduct over the stream, which is the county/international border. The original aquaduct remains albeit not in canal use and part of the garden of the aforementioned house.
As a summit level canal, the Ulster Canal was fed primarily from the Quiglough Reservoir near Monaghan town. As this new 800m of canal is isolated from a natural supply, there is a modern pump system adjacent to the border, pumping water into the canal from the border stream.
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