Coal deposits were discovered in East Tyrone at the end of the 17th century, but the coal could not be sold at Dublin, the obvious marketplace, as the cost of its transport made it considerably more expensive than coal imported from England or Scotland. The owners of the mines were mainly based in Dublin, and the first plans to build a canal to the coal-fields were made in 1709. Thomas Knox, a colliery owner, petitioned the Irish Parliament with a plan for a canal from Knock Bridge, near Gifford to Fathom Point, near Newry. The canal broadly followed the line of the later Newry Canal, but although a parliamentary committee liked the proposal, nothing came of it at the time.