Survey Data
Reg No
11902104
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Macartneys Bridge and Locks
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1780 - 1785
Coordinates
263203, 212802
Date Recorded
13/11/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-arch dressed stone hump back road bridge over canal, dated 1784, with dressed stone voussoirs, keystone and coping to parapet wall. Dressed stone walls to abutments. Dressed stone terminating piers. Dressed stone parapet walls. Cut-stone date stone plaque. Single segmental arch. Dressed stone voussoirs with central keystone. Squared rubble stone soffits with traces of render over. Sited spanning Grand Canal (Athy Branch) with grass banks to canal. Canal lock, c.1785, to north comprising sections of stone ashlar retaining walls with stone bollards and timber lock gates over incorporating integral pedestrian footbridge.
Appraisal
Macartneys Bridge (and Lock) is a fine stone bridge that forms an imposing feature on the Grand Canal (Athy Branch) and is one of a group of bridges on the section of that canal that passes through County Kildare. The construction of the arch that has retained its original shape is of technical and engineering merit. The bridge (and sections of canal retaining walls) exhibits good quality stone masonry and fine, crisp joints. The bridge and lock group is of considerable historical and social significance as a reminder of the canal network development in Ireland, which brought about many technical advances and encouraged the development of commercial activity in the late eighteenth century.