Crossing the River Clare to the east of the Tuam-Ballinasloe road, Ballygaddy Bridge once stretched roughly fifty metres across the water on at least thirteen round arches, yet today its central section is simply missing. What remains are eleven arches divided between the two banks, five to the north and six to the south, standing in the landscape like two sentences with the middle clause torn out.

The destruction of the central arches is traditionally attributed to the 1798 rebellion, when bridges were sometimes demolished to slow troop movements during that brief and violent uprising. The story carries a certain logic, but it sits awkwardly against the evidence: the first edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, produced in the 1830s, appears to show the bridge still intact, which raises questions about when the damage actually occurred and why. The bridge itself is built of mortared limestone, around 4.9 metres wide, and its upstream face retains six cutwaters, the triangular projections built to divide the current and reduce pressure on the piers. Each cutwater here is topped with a refuge, a small widened platform where a pedestrian could step aside to let a cart pass. The distribution of these features is uneven, five refuges on the south bank and one on the north, and differences in the character of the masonry between the two banks suggest the structure may not have been built in a single campaign, but rather expanded or repaired at different periods.