Bridge, Gortlahard, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Bridges & Crossings
On the Roughty River in County Kerry, a modest road bridge carries traffic across the water while quietly preserving the evidence of its own construction in its walls.
Dotted across the sandstone masonry are put-log holes, the small square sockets left behind when the timber scaffolding was removed after building. Most bridges are stripped of such traces over time, rendered smooth by repair and repointing, but here they remain, readable to anyone who knows what they are looking at.
The bridge runs roughly east to west, measuring about 5.5 metres wide, and crosses the Roughty on two segmental arches, each spanning around 6.5 metres. The voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones that form the curve of an arch and transfer its load down into the piers, are described as roughly shaped, suggesting a functional rather than refined construction. A low pointed cutwater projects from the upstream face of the central pier, a practical feature designed to split the current and reduce the force of water pressing against the masonry. To the east, on the floodplain, a dry arch with a span of about 6.3 metres provides an overflow passage during high water, a common provision on Irish bridges where rivers spread wide in flood. The parapets have been rebuilt in concrete at some point, the one concession to modernity in an otherwise traditional rubble sandstone structure.