Survey Data
Reg No
31311008
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Previous Name
New Bridge
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1820 - 1825
Coordinates
123738, 268191
Date Recorded
04/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Three-arch road bridge over river, begun 1823; extant 1838. "Repaired". Part repointed tuck pointed coursed or snecked rock faced limestone walls centred on tooled limestone ashlar rounded triangular cutwaters to piers on shuttered mass concrete battered bases having domed pyramidal capping with drag edged tooled cut-limestone stringcourses supporting replacement mild steel railings on mass-concrete plinths. Series of three segmental arches with repointed drag edged tooled limestone ashlar voussoirs. Sited spanning Robe River with unkempt grass banks to river.
Appraisal
A bridge erected to a design by Alexander Nimmo (1783-1832), Engineer to the Western District (appointed 1822; replaced 1831), regarded as an important component of the early nineteenth-century civil engineering heritage of south County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one annotated as "New Bridge" on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey (surveyed 1838; published 1840), confirmed not only by the rock faced surface finish offset by "sparrow pecked" sheer limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also by the elegant "sweep" of the arches making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the Robe River.