No mortar, no arch, no engineered span; just large rough boulders set into the riverbed to support nine flat stone slabs, laid end to end across a distance of twelve metres. Three of those slabs rest on dry land, suggesting the bridge extends slightly beyond the active channel, accommodating seasonal variation in the river's width or flow. It is, in the most literal sense, a clapper bridge, a form of crossing so simple it predates almost every other type of bridge construction in Ireland.

A clapper bridge works on a principle that requires almost no explanation once you see one: upright stones or boulders act as piers, and long flat slabs are laid horizontally across them to form the deck. The individual slabs here range from around 1.3 metres to 2.6 metres in length, suggesting they were selected and placed with some care, even if the overall effect is rugged and unworked. The bridge connects residential houses to the north-northwest with a roadway to the east, which means this was, and perhaps still is, a genuinely functional crossing rather than a ceremonial or agricultural curiosity. Ros An Locha sits in the Gouganebarra valley, a place defined by the lake, the surrounding hills, and the early monastic associations of the area, and a small stone bridge of this kind fits naturally into that landscape of sparse, practical construction.