Bridge, Ballinalee, Co. Longford

Co. Longford |

Bridges & Crossings

Bridge, Ballinalee, Co. Longford

A crossing over the Camlin River at Ballinalee has been recorded for well over three and a half centuries, yet virtually nothing of its oldest form remains above ground.

What stands today, the single-arch Soran Bridge dating from around 1860, quietly occupies a spot that appears on maps going back to the mid-seventeenth century, making it one of those places where the physical fabric and the documentary record tell rather different stories.

The earliest evidence for a bridge here appears on the Down Survey parish map of Clonbroney, produced between 1655 and 1656. The Down Survey was the ambitious land-mapping project directed by William Petty following the Cromwellian conquest, and the Clonbroney sheet, held in the National Library of Ireland, shows a crossing at this location on the Camlin. By the time the Ordnance Survey produced its six-inch map in 1837, a bridge was still clearly marked, though that earlier structure was subsequently replaced. The single-arch bridge that carries traffic today dates from around 1860 and is thought to incorporate some of the material from its predecessor, meaning the stonework may be older in places than the construction date suggests. No visible trace of any crossing predating the 1837 bridge survives at surface level.

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