bridge

Single-arch railway bridge, built c.1850, to carry Dundalk & Enniskillen Branch of former Ulster Railway over local access road. Now disused and set in open pasture. Segmental arch, with rock-faced rusticated voussoirs and dressed stone soffits. Rock-faced rusticated sandstone to buttresses flanking arch to east and west, spandrel, and abutment walls. Abutment walls to south splayed. Squared stone parapet walls with tooled stone copings. Rusticated ribbon dressed copings to abutment walls. Carriageway overgrown.

The Dundalk-Enniskillen Branch of the Ulster Railway (later subsumed into the Great Northern Railway) opened on 17th July 1854, and closed in 1959. It was an important transport link between Louth, Monaghan and Fermanagh. This bridge stands as a symbol of the industrial character of Monaghan’s architectural vocabulary, with the widespread nature of the railway network being a direct reflection of the economic viability of commercial transport links here. This well-composed bridge is, also, indicative of the skill in engineering and stoneworking prevalent in the nineteenth century, with rusticated stone voussoirs enhancing the elegant arch. Now isolated in a grazing field, it is both highly visible and visibly appealing.