That a structure of this kind has been recorded as a monument at all speaks to how thoroughly Ireland's lost railway network has become archaeology, its bridges and earthworks now regarded with the same careful attention given to ringforts and medieval walls.

Ireland's nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an extraordinary proliferation of railway construction, much of it serving rural communities and agricultural hinterlands that would later lose their lines under the rationalisation schemes of the mid-twentieth century. Bridges built to carry these lines were typically constructed in local stone or brick, engineered to bear significant loads, and designed with a solidity that outlasted the services they supported. When the tracks were lifted and the stations closed, the bridges often remained, too substantial to demolish and too embedded in the landscape to ignore.