Survey Data
Reg No
13900808
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Pier/jetty
In Use As
Pier/jetty
Date
1870 - 1880
Coordinates
315564, 305354
Date Recorded
14/07/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Pier, built 1874-9, on a cranked plan with precast concrete block battered walls having cut-granite rounded coping. Set extending into Dundalk Bay.
Appraisal
A pier representing an integral component of the later nineteenth-century built heritage of County Louth. The pier had originally been designed and specified (1872) by William Forsyth (1798?-1888?), Chief Engineer to the Board of Public Works (appointed 1863), and estimated at £10,000, but, following requests for tender (4th September 1872), was put on hold owing to the projected costs, ranging from £27,676 to £55,000, being 'so much above the available funds'; a revised design, 'shortened by 120 feet', attracted just one tender 'amounting to £16,800...being more than double the sum provided for the construction...viz. £8000' (Forty-Seventh Annual Report from the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland: with Appendices for the Year 1878-79, 53). A contractor, Martin Farrell, suggested that building an amended pier, using concrete instead of stone, would cost £9,500. The pier, 'differing in form from that designed by Mr. Forsyth only so far as was contingent on the change in the description of material used', ultimately came in at £9,300. The pier, its precast concrete blocks masking a shingle hearting, was described (1879) by Robert Manning (1816-97), Chief Engineer to the Board of Public Works (appointed 1974), as 'the first pier built under the direction of the Board which (with the exception of steps, coping, and wharf-pavement) has been entirely constructed with Portland cement concrete' (ibid., 53).