Survey Data
Reg No
31312330
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Scientific, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1846 - 1857
Coordinates
125577, 249076
Date Recorded
29/11/2010
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-arch road bridge over river, extant 1857. Part creeper- or ivy-covered tuck pointed coursed or snecked rock faced limestone walls between coursed or snecked rock faced limestone piers with rock faced cut-limestone stringcourses supporting parapets having rock faced cut-limestone coping. Single segmental arch with drag edged rock faced limestone ashlar radiating voussoirs. Sited spanning Black River with unkempt banks to river.
Appraisal
A bridge most likely erected under the supervision of Samuel Ussher Roberts CE (1821-1900), District Engineer (appointed 1858; transferred 1855), representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century civil engineering heritage of south County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one succeeding an eighteenth-century bridge illustrated by Taylor and Skinner (1778 pl. 217), confirmed not only by the rock faced surface finish demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also by the elegant "sweep" of the arch making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the Black River: meanwhile, a discreet benchmark remains of additional interest for the connections with cartography and the preparation of maps by the Ordnance Survey (established 1824).