Bridge, Kilcloghans, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Bridges & Crossings

Bridge, Kilcloghans, Co. Galway

A cobbled trackway still crosses this small limestone bridge at Kilcloghans, worn smooth by generations of use and now largely forgotten by anyone not walking that particular stretch of ground.

What makes it quietly worth attention is the persistence of the thing: a round-arched bridge of roughly coursed and mortared stone, built to carry traffic over an arterial drain, still doing its job after two or three centuries.

The bridge almost certainly dates from the eighteenth or nineteenth century, a period when drainage works and agricultural improvement were reshaping the boggy midlands and western counties of Ireland. Arterial drains, cut to move water off productive land, required crossings like this one, and local limestone was the obvious material. The round arch, one of the oldest structural forms in bridge-building, distributes load efficiently and needs no sophisticated machinery to construct. This example has been reinforced and re-grouted with concrete at some point, which is why it still stands rather than quietly subsiding into the drain below it. The cobbled surface on top is a notable survival, a small detail that anchors the structure to the era before tarmac made such finishes redundant.

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Pete F
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