Bridge in Cornagillagh, County Donegal

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Single-arch former railway bridge, built c. 1909, carrying former Strabane to Letterkenny narrow gauge railway line over small rural road. Railway line now out of use with tracks removed (c. 1960). Squared and mildly rock-faced construction to spandrels, parapets, wing walls and piers; chamfered cut stone coping over parapets. Cut stone block-and-start quoins to piers below arch springing point. Segmental-headed arch with cut stone voussoirs or ruled-and-lined render detailing to arch ring, and with cement rendered finish to arch barrel. Squared and mildly rock-faced retaining walls to railway embankment to either side of bridge north and south having chamfered cut stone coping over. Located in the rural countryside to the north-west of Convoy.

This appealing former railway bridge retains its original form and character despite the closure of the line in 1960. The good-quality mildly rock-faced masonry used in the construction of the arch and as the coping to the parapets is a typical feature of Victorian railway engineering and architecture in Ireland. It survives in good condition, which is testament to the quality of its original construction, and of the ambitions of the railway company involved in its initial construction. It was originally built by the Strabane to Letterkenny Railway Company (worked by the Donegal Railway Company Joint Committee) as part of the Strabane to Letterkenny narrow gauge (3-foot) railway line, which opened in January 1909 and closed on the 1st of January 1960. This former railway bridge forms part of a group of related structures associated with this former railway line in south-east County Donegal, and is an integral element of the built heritage and transport history of the county.

From the Buildings of Ireland (National Inventory of Architectural Heritage) record 40906103

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Picture notes

National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Richard Webb, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Computer-made picture. It does not show this playground.
Kenneth Allen, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Andreas F. Borchert, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Kenneth Allen, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Computer-made picture. It does not show this garden.

bridge791 yd

Explorer Tom Bridge in Cornagillagh carried a road over the three-foot Strabane to Letterkenny railway, opened in 1909. Its cut-stone corners and low arch make me think the road dressed up for a grand railway while the little trains slipped quietly underneath.

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