Camus Bridge, Camus, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Bridges & Crossings
A ten-arched limestone bridge crossing the River Suir at a perfect right angle is unusual enough on its own, but what makes this particular crossing quietly compelling is what it replaced, and what it displaced.
The present bridge at Camus carries a road that is itself a relative newcomer, a modern section of the Dundrum to Cashel route, and it sits nearly two kilometres north of where travellers once forded the Suir on a far older path.
The bridge dates to around 1600 and was possibly partly rebuilt circa 1780. It is constructed from rubble limestone, with roughly dressed voussoirs and keystones, the wedge-shaped stones that lock an arch in place and distribute its load. The arches on the southern side are segmental, meaning they describe a shallow curve rather than a full semicircle, a form common in Irish bridge-building of the period. Vegetation along the bank and spreading downstream from the piers obscures several of the arches, which gives the structure a slightly submerged, half-legible quality. Before this bridge existed, the main routeway to Cashel ran along a north-south corridor to the west of Camus, passing by Ballynahinch Castle. That road was known locally as Boher Bocht, meaning the poor way or the poor road, a name that may reflect its modest upkeep or simply its character as an unimproved track. The river crossing for that older route lay about 1.8 kilometres to the south-southwest, though no visible trace of an earlier bridge survives at that location.