Survey Data
Reg No
12000196
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Viaduct
Date
1860 - 1870
Coordinates
251014, 156292
Date Recorded
16/06/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Seven-arch railway viaduct over road, opened 1865, originally nine-arch spanning three separate roads. Renovated, c.1950, with one arch remodelled to accommodate single span. Closed, 1963. Truncated, post-1963, with arches to south-east removed. Broken coursed rock-face cut-limestone walls with broken coursed rock-faced squared limestone parapets having cut-limestone coping. Series of six segmental arches with rock-faced cut-limestone voussoirs, and rendered soffits (now infilled or part-infilled with concrete block). Single span section to north-west originally single-arch remodelled, c.1950, with girder span having iron panelled parapets. Sited spanning road (originally spanning three separate roads).
Appraisal
The remains of an elegantly-composed viaduct forming a element of special interest in the architectural heritage of Kilkenny for the associations with the development of the Waterford and Maryborough [Portlaoise] Branch extension of the Great Southern and Western Railway Line by the Kilkenny Junction Railway Company. Exhibiting very high quality stone masonry in the construction the rock-faced treatment to the surface in particular produces an appealing textured visual effect enhancing the position of the site in the locality. Despite alteration works prior to and following the closure of the section of the line much of the original composition survives intact including the profile of the arches identifying the civil engineering heritage significance of the site.