Bridge

The National Monuments Service's description

Abutments and collapsed sections of the 1772 St John’s Bridge excavated by Ian Doyle (01E0980) immediately upstream/N of the current bridge crossing (NIAH 12000229), completed 1910, over the River Nore in Kilkenny City. The 1772 bridge replaced a succession of medieval bridges, the latest (KK019-026070-) of which was destroyed, along with most of the bridges on the Nore, by the 'Great Flood' of 1763 (Doyle 2003, 8-12). The 18th-century bridge was a three-arch masonry structure (L 45m) with a slightly humped profile, designed by George Smith and built by the contractor William Colles. Two of the bridge piers (L 12m x Wth 4m) were recorded in the excavation. Both piers were built on raft foundations of timber and masonry and the timber shuttering in which the pier bases were constructed was also present. A series of adjacent softwood timbers were interpreted as the remains of a temporary bridge erected in the immediate aftermath of the 1763 flood. These timbers, many of which retained forged iron shoes, formed three parallel lines driven into the river bed. A collection of 13th/14th-century grave slabs, probably taken from nearby St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-), were recovered from the river gravels around the piers of the 18th-century bridge where they had been placed to protected the piers (Doyle and O'Meara 2004, 6-20). Part of an abutment of the 18th-century bridge survives today on the E bank of the river but most of the masonry abutments were removed during the Kilkenny Flood Relief Scheme. The remains of the late 16th-century St John’s Bridge (KK019-026070-) and an Iron Age post-and-wattle fish-trap (KK019-026240-) were also recorded below the current John’s Bridge.

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 12 November 2020

References

Doyle, I.W. and O’Meara, B. 2004 River Nore (Kilkenny City) drainage scheme archaeological excavations at John’s Quay/Mayor’s Walk and College Park, Kilkenny 2003, 01E0821. Unpublished report. Margaret Gowen and Co Ltd.

Doyle, I.W. 2003 The Lost Bridge of Kilkenny City: John’s Bridge, 1765-1910. Archaeology Ireland 17, No. 1, 8-12.