bridge

Single-arch masonry railway bridge, built c.1910, carrying road over Castleblayney, Keady and Armagh (CK&A) branch of the Great Northern Railway. Segmental arch, with rock-faced stone abutments, parapet and spandrel walls, having moulded red brick string course at base of parapet wall. Red brick rowlock voussoirs, and red brick facer bond soffit to arch. Squared stone parapet walls, with moulded red brick copings, concrete copings to corner posts.

The Castleblayney, Keady and Armagh (CK&A) branch of the Great Northern Railway was completed in 1910. The Keady to Castleblayney section of the CK&A was closed in April 1923 following the partition of Ireland in 1922, hastening the railway's decline. This bridge is of architectural interest in being the only stone and brick bridge on the County Monaghan stretch of the former CK&A railway, all other railway bridges on this line being of concrete and brick. The use of stone here may well suggest a high local significance for this site. This well-composed bridge is representative of the skill in engineering and stone-working in the early twentieth century, with consecutive courses of rowlock brick voussoirs enhancing and highlighting the elegant curve of the arch. The former railway bridge still carries this minor road over the railway line and is an aesthetically-pleasing structure, serving as a physical reminder of the extent and social and industrial importance of the railway network in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.