Bridge, Slaght, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Bridges & Crossings
A small road bridge in Slaght, County Kerry, draws attention not for its scale but for a structural peculiarity: the voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones that form its elliptical arch, project outward by as much as 0.3 metres beyond the faces of the bridge.
On most bridges of this type, such stones sit flush or close to flush; here, they jut noticeably, giving the arch a rough, almost unfinished quality that contrasts with the more carefully laid coursed rusticated ashlar lining the sides beneath it.
The bridge was built in the mid to late nineteenth century, spanning a south-easterly flowing tributary of the Owbeg River along a north-south axis, with a total width of 6.2 metres and an arch span of 3.1 metres. Its main body is constructed from random rubble sandstone, and the arch is reinforced by buttresses to either side, an unusual feature for a bridge of this modest size. The 1846 Ordnance Survey six-inch map shows the road approaching from the south as being marked "in progress" at the time of survey, which suggests the bridge was likely constructed as part of the same road-building scheme, placing it within the broader mid-nineteenth-century effort to extend and improve rural infrastructure across Kerry, a period that also coincided with the upheaval of the Famine years and the public works programmes that accompanied them.