Survey Data
Reg No
15321031
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1760 - 1800
Coordinates
233750, 236441
Date Recorded
03/09/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Five-arch road bridge, built c.1780, carrying the Mullingar Road over the River Brosna and adjacent millrace associated with Coola Mills. Constructed of rubble limestone with dressed limestone voussoirs to arches and rubble stone coping. V-profile cutwaters on upstream elevation (east). Reconstructed at northeast end c.1980. The bridge is effectively in two sections - three arches over the River Brosna (north) and a further two over the millrace (south) which is a cut across a bend in the river to serve the mill. Located to the north of Kilbeggan.
Appraisal
An attractive and well-built bridge which represents an important element of the historic infrastructure of the Kilbeggan area. It is likely that this bridge was constructed as part of a Grand Jury transport improvement scheme in the late eighteenth-century. It is similar in scale and construction to a number of mid-to-late eighteenth-century five-arch road bridges over the River Brosna in Co. Offaly to the south. This structure forms part of an interesting group of structures associated with Coola Mill to the immediate west and is an integral element of the architectural heritage of Westmeath.