Survey Data
Reg No
30410003
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
Date
1825 - 1830
Coordinates
192295, 224010
Date Recorded
17/11/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-arch limestone canal bridge, built c.1828, formerly carrying road over Ballinasloe branch of Grand Canal, now disused. Segmental arch with ashlar soffit and tooled voussoirs. Splayed parapet walls, rubble stone to road elevation, dressed snecked stone to canal elevation, with cut-stone curved string course and coping. Tapered square-profile terminating piers. Dressed snecked stone walls. Dressed and cut-stone embankments to canal.
Appraisal
Built under the charge of engineer and surveyor, Hamilton Hartley Killaly (1800-74), this canal bridge is of evident technical merit, with a sufficiently high arch to allow the passage of barges below. The iconic design with the splayed parapet walls and tapering piers is seen throughout the route of the Grand Canal, which provided a valuable trade and transport route from Dublin to Ballinasloe. The precisely cut stone with the curving string course shows the skill of nineteenth-century stonemasons.