Survey Data
Reg No
15401001
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1800 - 1840
Coordinates
225880, 260288
Date Recorded
21/10/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Wide-span single-arched road bridge over River Inny, built c.1857, incorporating the fabric of an earlier bridge to either end (east and west). Constructed using coursed rusticated squared limestone rubble with rusticated rock-faced limestone voussoirs to segmental arch. Rubble limestone construction to earlier sections to east and west. Projecting pulvinated string course at road level and at springing point of arch. Dressed limestone barrel-shaped coping over parapet and terminating piers, on square-plan, to either end of rebuilt section. Rubble limestone construction to earlier sections to east and west having roughly dressed limestone voussoirs. Located to the west of Ballynacarrigy, straddling border with County Longford.
Appraisal
A robustly-built and handsome road bridge, of mid nineteenth-century appearance, which is a pleasing and distinct feature in the rural landscape. The good quality heavily rusticated masonry is a typical feature of the many bridges built by Board of Works in the mid nineteenth-century, particularly between c.1847-60. Indeed, this bridge is very similar in appearance to a number of dated bridges (1857) over the Inny, including Ballycorkey Bridge (15400601) to the north, suggesting that this bridge was built as part of the drainage/building programme at this time. The arch to this bridge is amongst the widest of its type in Westmeath and is of some technical merit. The present bridge replaced an earlier and much wider bridge located at this site, at a time when the River Inny was considerably wider at this point (Ordnance Survey Map 1838). The earlier sections to the east and west were originally part of this earlier bridge, which was probably a Grand Jury bridge dating from the late eighteenth-century but may be considerably older. Ballynacarrow Bridge is an important element of the civil engineering Heritage of County Westmeath and continues to play an important role in the communications network in the area.