Survey Data
Reg No
41401006
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1835 - 1845
Coordinates
270397, 336081
Date Recorded
19/03/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-arch cut-stone humpback canal bridge, constructed c.1840, on disused canal. Constructed with irregular block-cut limestone walls having granite block copings, with granite string course over arch. Elliptical arch with ashlar voussoirs and soffit. Square-plan corner pier with pointed capstone to south-west corner of bridge. Sited spanning former Ulster Canal with towpath platform running underneath arch to north and remains of grass towpath to east and west. Milestone and two masonry locks to west of bridge.
Appraisal
Crowey Bridge is a fine stone structure spanning the Ulster Canal, a disused waterway running through Armagh, Monaghan, Tyrone and Fermanagh from Lough Neagh to Lough Erne. It is still used for local access. The bridge exhibits good-quality stone masonry and fine, crisp joints, and is of historical and social significance as a reminder of the development of Ireland's canal network. The canal, built between 1825 and 1842, was 74km (46 miles) long, but its 26 locks were built narrower than the other Irish waterways, preventing through-trade, and had an inadequate water supply, falling into rapid decline from the mid-nineteenth century, and abandoned in 1931. This bridge relates directly to a milestone, the 13th and 14th canal locks, towpath, and a mooring bollard to the west.