Bridge

The National Monuments Service's description

In a shallow valley with a small stream near the E end of Ballysadare Bay.
There are no visible remains of a 17th-century bridge referred to on a stone (SL014-284009-) with a Latin inscription (now in Sligo County Museum) attributing the building of the bridge to Maria, wife of the soldier Roger Jones in the year 1628 (Sligo Field Club files).
The 17th-century bridge may have replaced an earlier bridge. The placename Belladrihid (Béal an Droichid, ‘approach of (to) the bridge’) is recorded in the Annals of Loch Cé under the year 1495: LC1495.2 ‘Mac Donnchadha of Tir-Oilella, i.e. Tadhg, the son of Brian, son of Conchobhar, was killed by O'Domhnaill, i.e. Aedh Ruadh, son of Niall Garbh, at Bel-an-droichit.’ (pers. comm. Dr Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich, An Brainse Logainmneacha /The Placenames Branch, 2021).
The present bridge is a disused causeway bridge of 19th-century appearance between a railway line and the modern N4 road. It has two semicircular arches, roughly 12m apart, one partially replaced with concrete and the other blocked up leaving only a small lintelled channel.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Revised upload: 21 September 2021