Survey Data
Reg No
31311502
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Scientific, Social, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1820 - 1825
Coordinates
84079, 265154
Date Recorded
17/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-arch hump back road bridge over river, dated 1823. Damaged, 1922. "Restored", 1924. "Repaired", 2011. Part repointed tuck pointed coursed or snecked rubble stone walls between "bas-relief" piers with tooled cut-sandstone stringcourses supporting parapets having tooled cut-limestone coping centred on precast concrete (north) or "Guilloche"-detailed cut-limestone (south) date stones ("1924"; "1823"). Single elliptical arch with drag edged tooled limestone ashlar voussoirs. Sited spanning Bundorragha River with unkempt banks to river.
Appraisal
A bridge 'DESIGNED AND BUILT BY WILLIAM BALD [c.1789-1857]' representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century civil engineering heritage of south County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one interpretable as a reduction of the Bald-designed Bellacorick Bridge (1820-1), Bellacorick (see 31302702), confirmed not only the "sparrow pecked" sheer limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also by the elegant "sweep" of the arch making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the Bundorragha River: meanwhile, a later date stone ("1924") records the restoration of the bridge by Edward Keville Dixon (1860-1924), County Surveyor for County Mayo South Riding (appointed 1893; retired 1924), with those works forming part of a county-wide programme of reconstruction following "The Troubles" (1919-23).