Survey Data
Reg No
31215010
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
Date
1845 - 1855
Coordinates
118761, 264147
Date Recorded
25/11/2010
Date Updated
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Description
Single-arch road bridge over canal, begun 1849; under construction 1850; completed 1852; extant 1894. Now disused. Part ivy-covered tuck pointed drag edged rock faced limestone ashlar piers with lichen-covered tooled cut-limestone "Torus" stringcourses supporting parapets having drag edged tooled cut-limestone coping. Single segmental arch with drag edged rock faced limestone ashlar radiating voussoirs. Sited spanning canalised Robe River with retaining wall to canal having tooled cut-limestone coping.
Appraisal
A bridge identified as an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century civil engineering heritage of south County Mayo on account of the connections with the county-wide programme of famine relief drainage works completed under the Drainage (Ireland) Act, 1846, with the architectural value of the composition, one sometimes known as "Barrack Bridge" (Twentieth Report 1852, 150), confirmed not only by the rock faced surface finish offset by "sparrow pecked" sheer limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also by the elegant "sweep" of the arch making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the canalised Robe River.