Survey Data
Reg No
41401624
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
Date
1855 - 1865
Coordinates
244860, 318656
Date Recorded
22/05/2012
Date Updated
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Description
Four-arch railway bridge, built c.1860, carrying Clones and Cavan Extension Railway over River Finn. Segmental arches with dressed V-jointed voussoirs and squared coursed snecked rubble stone to soffits. V-shaped cutwaters having rounded stone capping to each elevation of piers. Dressed chamfered sandstone plat-band at impost level of each arch, continuing around cut-waters. Narrow stone string course to base of each cutwater. Tapered stone buttresses to abutment to each elevation. Roughly coursed rock-faced rusticated stone to spandrel walls, buttresses, abutments, piers and cut-waters. Margined quoins. Chamfered dressed sandstone plat-band, surmounted by dressed sandstone parapet walls, missing to some of east elevation, raised capping over buttresses.
Appraisal
This substantial and elegantly-composed bridge fulfilled an important function in carrying the railway over the River Finn and provided a connection between counties Monaghan and Fermanagh. It formed a component part of the Cavan Branch of the Ulster Railway, later the Great Northern Railway, which was opened by the Clones and Cavan Extension Railway, but built and worked by the Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway. Dressed sandstone detailing to voussoirs, plat-bands, and parapets articulate each elevation and provide a contrast to the rock-faced stone of the spandrel and abutment wall, producing an appealing textural visual affect. This bridge makes an aesthetically-pleasing focal point in the landscape, forms a group with the road bridge nearby, and is an important reminder of the railway heritage of the area.