It is the kind of structure that most people would pass without a second glance, yet it may carry a history stretching back to the mid-seventeenth century, when eels were considered significant enough to be recorded in an official land survey of Ireland.

The Civil Survey of 1654 to 1656, a detailed Cromwellian-era assessment of land ownership and resources across Ireland, noted two eel weirs in this general area. An eel weir was a fixed barrier or trap built across a river, designed to intercept migrating eels as they moved downstream, usually in autumn. They were valued features of a riverine economy, providing a reliable and preservable food source, and were often listed alongside mills and other productive assets when land was being assessed or redistributed. The weir at Beakstown, still visible today, is thought to be a possible surviving remnant of one of those two structures recorded by the survey. Whether it was built before 1654 or was later modified into its present regulating form is not known, but the alignment with the historical record gives it a quiet significance that its modest appearance does nothing to advertise.