Bridge, Killymongaun, Co. Galway

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Bridges & Crossings

Bridge, Killymongaun, Co. Galway

A grass-covered bridge in Connemara sounds like a contradiction in terms, yet that is precisely what survives at Killymongaun: a small stone crossing so thoroughly overtaken by vegetation that it reads more as a grassy hump than a piece of civil engineering.

It spans a westerly flowing stream that drains into Salt Lake, and its modest dimensions, two metres high, under four metres wide, six metres long, give little hint of the role it once played in connecting this corner of County Galway to the outside world.

According to local information recorded by T. Robinson in 1986, this single-arch bridge was the pre-Nimmo route, a bridle path rather than a formal road, that carried travellers into Clifden from the south before the modern road network arrived. The Nimmo in question was Alexander Nimmo, the Scottish engineer who carried out extensive road and harbour works across Connemara in the early nineteenth century, transforming movement through a landscape that had previously relied on rough tracks and routes like this one. The bridge itself is built of mortared masonry in a segmental arch form, meaning the arch describes a shallower curve than a full semicircle, a practical choice for a low crossing over a modest stream. The two faces of the arch tell different stories: the western side retains its original stonework intact, while the eastern side has been reinforced at some point with concrete and iron girders, a repair that preserved the crossing's function at the cost of its uniformity.

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