Survey Data
Reg No
14805011
Rating
National
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1755 - 1760
Coordinates
196673, 225449
Date Recorded
19/10/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Sixteen-arch masonry road bridge, completed in 1757, carrying the Ballinasloe Shannonbridge road across the River Shannon and linking Counties Offaly and Roscommon. Concrete fixed reinforced-concrete span added to east end in 1983. Random rubble limestone walls with dressed limestone voussoirs to semicircular arch-rings. Stone corbels to rendered soffits. Dressed limestone string courses to parapets surmounted by dressed stone coping. Full-height upstream and downstream V-cutwaters with pedestrian refuges to parapet. Limestone plaque to east end gives dates for bridges construction and opening to navigation. Modern metal lamp standards to road surface.
Appraisal
Lending its name to the village located on the Offaly side of the river, Shannonbridge is one of the finest bridges in Ireland. The massive sixteen-arched structure is a testament to eighteenth-century engineering and stone masonry. Spanning Ireland's longest river, the bridge links Counties Roscommon and Offaly.