Survey Data
Reg No
31310109
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Foot bridge
Date
1890 - 1900
Coordinates
133350, 276152
Date Recorded
04/08/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-arch hump back footbridge over railway line, extant 1894; opened 1895. Now disused. Creeper- or ivy-covered tuck pointed snecked rock faced limestone walls with lichen-covered rock faced cut-limestone coping to parapets. Single segmental arch with red brick header bond voussoirs. Sited spanning overgrown railway line with unkempt embankments to railway line.
Appraisal
A footbridge identified as an integral component of the late nineteenth-century civil engineering heritage of the outskirts of Claremorris on account of the connections with the development of the Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway (WLWR) line by the Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway (WLWR) Company, the so-called "Burma Road" opened (1895) in response to Arthur James Balfour's Light Railways (Ireland) Act, 1889, with the architectural value of the composition 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 now-neglected railway line.