Blackfriars' Bridge

Three-arch rubble stone road bridge over river, built 1633-4. Random rubble stone walls with inscribed benchmark, and rock-faced cut-limestone coping to parapets. Series of three round arches on random rubble stone piers with rubble stone voussoirs, and squared rubble stone soffits. Sited spanning Breagagh River with squared limestone retaining walls to river supporting grass bank having random rubble stone boundary wall.

An appealing bridge representing an important element of the civil engineering or transport heritage of Kilkenny City. The early period of construction serves to identify the archaeological significance of the site while the traditional construction exhibiting unrefined rubble stone work produces an appealing textured visual effect in the street scene. The survival of an inscribed benchmark is of additional importance for the associations with cartography and the preparation of maps by the Ordnance Survey.