Survey Data
Reg No
22805035
Rating
National
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
Date
1875 - 1880
Coordinates
239338, 106334
Date Recorded
22/07/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Eight-arch rubble stone railway viaduct over road, mill race and river, opened 1878, on a shallow curved plan. Closed, 1982. Random rubble stone walls with cut-stone stringcourse, and cut-stone coping to parapets. Series of eight round arches on random rubble stone tapered piers with cut-stone stringcourses to springs of arches, dressed rubble stone voussoirs, and squared rubble stone soffits. Sited spanning road, mill race and River Mahon with grass banks to north-west and to south-east.
Appraisal
An elegantly-composed railway viaduct, built to designs prepared by James Otway (1843 - 1906) by Smith Finlaysaon and Company, Glasgow, which forms a monument landmark dominating the skyline in the centre of Kilmacthomas. The civil engineering heritage significance of the composition is identified by the form and construction of the arches, which have retained their original profile. The construction in rubble stone with squared rubble stone dressings attests to high quality stone masonry, and produces an appealing textured visual effect in the landscape. The viaduct, one of a pair in the immediate locality (with 22805032/WD-15-05-32), is of particular significance as a reminder of the development of the Great Southern and Western Railway line by the Waterford, Dungarvan, and Lismore Railway Company in the late nineteenth century, which promoted the economy of smaller urban areas, such as Kilmacthomas.