Gorteen Bridge, Florence Court, Co Fermanagh, BT92 1DB

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This under-bridge permits an unsurfaced track way from the Cottage Wood and Kennel Field to pass into Gorteen Wood, running beneath an unsurfaced track that leads southward from the house into the Kennel Field. It is built of Carboniferous sandstone rubble, with single segmental arch, and is located 35 metres south of the Eel House Bridge (HB 12/09/68). The bridge has a depth of 5.52m and a span of 2.60m and height of 2.30m. Both arches faces, on the east and west sides, have rusticated vee-jointed voussoirs. The carriageway above is defined by parapets c.30-40cm, high, restored 1998-99. The eastern approach to the bridge is excavated into the ground for a length of about 30 metres.

Historical information

Neither the under bridge or either of the track ways are shown on Mulvihill's 1768 map, but they are depicted on McKimm's 1814 map and on the 1834 OS map and subsequent OS map editions. The bridge, which carried the trackway south into the Kennel Field, had to be built at the same time as the Eel House Bridge (HB12/09/68), and this was probably when the landscape park was laid out in the 1770s. The similarity of the rusticated voussoirs of both bridges to those in the Laundry and Stable Yards would support this dating. In 1998-99 the bridge was refurbished.

References
F. Mulvihill. Map 1768. PRONI T2094/2A
D. McKimm. 1814 Demesne Map. PRONI T2094/3A.
OS Map Sheet 32 (1834)
Reeves-Smyth T (1990) Florence Court Demesne. Three Volumes (Vol. 3, p134). National Trust: Unpublished.
Hamond, F. W. (1996) HB Inspection Report 8-9-1996.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A good and rare surviving example of a demesne bridge associated with a sunken carriageway.

General comments

In the creation of landscape parks in the later 18th century trackways for carriages were sometimes sunken to improve the aesthetics of the landscape design, particularly if the trackways were carrying commercial traffic. There are other examples of such under-bridges associated with sunken trackways, but this is a particularly good example of the type. The bridge is in excellent condition.