Fartamore Bridge, Fartamore, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Bridges & Crossings
A bridge that stretches for roughly 200 metres across a river and its flood plain is unusual enough, but what makes the one at Fartamore quietly arresting is the suspicion that it is considerably older than it looks.
The structure crosses the River Clare in County Galway and was formally dated to around 1700, yet the evidence on the ground points to something earlier hiding beneath that estimate.
The bridge is built largely from rubble limestone, its small stones forming a series of round-headed arches, the kind of modest, workmanlike construction common in the west of Ireland. Seven of its middle arches sit over the flood plain rather than the river itself, and the piers supporting these carry a triangular profile on one side, a practical feature designed to cut through floodwater and deflect debris. Sometime in the mid-nineteenth century, a larger segmental arch was inserted, built from squared rubble rather than the rougher limestone of the original, and this later addition is still plainly legible in the fabric of the structure. What gives the bridge its deeper interest is what stands to its west: the remains of a medieval tower house and associated earthworks. A tower house, typically a tall, fortified residence built by the Anglo-Norman or Gaelic Irish lordly classes between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, would rarely have sat beside open water without a crossing of some kind. The proximity of these earlier structures has led to the suggestion that the core of the bridge may itself be medieval, with the c.1700 date reflecting a substantial rebuilding rather than an original construction.
The bridge carries a road and remains in use, so it can be approached without difficulty, though the full length and the relationship between the varying arch types becomes most apparent from the flood plain itself rather than from the road above.