The bridge at Ballyre, spanning the Dissour river in County Cork, is a modest but well-composed example: 5.6 metres wide, carried on three semicircular arches built with roughly cut voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones that lock an arch together and distribute its load outward to the piers on either side. Low pointed breakwaters protect those piers at the waterline, angled to split the river's flow and reduce the pressure that can undermine a bridge over centuries of use.

The combination of semicircular arches and rough-cut stonework places this bridge within a long tradition of functional rural construction in Munster, where practicality tended to win out over dressed finish. Bridges of this type were built across several centuries, often by local craftsmen working without formal drawings, relying instead on timber centring and accumulated knowledge. The Dissour is a minor river, but crossings over even small watercourses mattered enormously in a landscape where roads followed the easiest ground and a flooded ford could isolate a townland for days. The bridge at Ballyre would have served that kind of quiet, essential purpose.