Bridge

The National Monuments Service's description

A road bridge (L 46m; Wth 6.56m; Wall T 0.4m) over the River Suir with Holycross Abbey (TN047-030001-) immediately to the N. There are eight segmental-pointed arches with roughly cut voussoirs on the upstream side, four of which have been repaired with modern concrete. Also on the upstream side are low pointed breakwaters. The bridge was possibly extended on the downstream side where the arches are semicircular in shape and are constructed with well-cut limestone voussoirs with a chamfered edge, possibly in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. An earlier bridge arch is still visible on the underside of three arches off-centre to the E on the downstream side. This consists of a flat almost depressed arch constructed with roughly cut thin voussoirs set on edge. The earlier, upriver section of the bridge has been dated to the first quarter of the fifteenth century (Simington and O'Keeffe 1991, 177-8). This is based on its similarity to Adare Bridge, Co. Limerick, dated to 1410 and Abingdon Bridge in England built in 1416. The bridge was rebuilt in 1626 by James Butler, Baron of Dunboyne (commemorated in a plaque described below) with the addition of a gate or arch at the W end. This arch, depicted on Beranger's late eighteenth-century sketch, no longer survives. There are two armorial plaques (TN047-030005) inserted in the wall-face at the NW end of the bridge. There is a separate limestone plaque under the armorial plaques with an inscription written in latin in raised Roman script. It seems to be in its original position as two of the words on the plaque spill out onto one of the wall stones. The inscription reads: DOMINVS JACOBVS BUTLER BARO DE DONBOYNE ET D MARGARETA BRIEN EIVSVXOR HVNC PONTEM COLLAPSVM EREXERVNT ET SVIS BRIEN EIVSVXOR HVNC PONTEM COLLAPSVM EREXERVNT ET SVIS INSIGNIBVS ADORNARVN ANNO DMINI 1626 DICPRECOR ANTE ARIT VMVERBO NOAMPLIVS VNO EVADAT STIGIOSAVCT OR VTERSLACVS. The translation of the inscription is as follows: 'To the traveller. Nicholas Cowley constructed me: Lord James Butler, Baron of Dunboyne, and his wife, Lady Margaret O'Brien rebuilt the bridge which has fallen, and ornamented it with their arms in the year of Our Lord 1626. Say, I beg you before you go away this short prayer: May the two who built it escape the pit of hell'.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 26 August 2011