Survey Data
Reg No
20902722
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Archaeological, Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1680 - 1840
Coordinates
182335, 101863
Date Recorded
23/10/2006
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Six-arch road bridge, over River Funshon, built c.1700, widened to west twice c.1780 and again c.1820. Rendered walls with render copings. Roughly dressed limestone voussoirs to segmental arches with large keystones. V-cutwaters to both elevations. Concrete extension, built 1956, to east elevation having render voussoirs and cutwaters.
Appraisal
Downing Bridge is notable for its complex history as a late seventeenth/early eighteenth-century bridge which had to be widened three times, in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. This was necessitated by its strategic importance on the Dublin-Cork road. Textural interest is provided by the contrast between the dressed voussoirs and the rubble stone walls. The generously-sized round arches add interest to the surrounding landscape.