Aqueduct in Roosky, County Monaghan

What is recorded here

Aqueduct in Roosky carries mill water over the road in a tarred wooden channel. Most places make you cross the water; Roosky sends it over your head in a long wooden bath and asks you to have a bit of faith in the tar.

Aqueduct, erected c.1840, carrying head race of former mill over local road. Timber superstructure of c.1900, braced with wrought-iron ties, supported on rubble stone abutments. Mass concrete walls flanking head race on either side of aqueduct, replacing original earth sides c.1940.

This simple, but unusual structure forms a component part of the complex of the nearby mill, carrying water to power the mill, and later being used to provide electricity. The pitch-pine timber channel was tarred to waterproof it, and its survival until today is testament both to the quality of the materials used and the civil engineering skill which was available in the mid-nineteenth century to put this channel in place. The bridge is of historical and social significance as a reminder of the industrial heritage of County Monaghan.

From the Buildings of Ireland (National Inventory of Architectural Heritage) record 41401230

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