Cross Guns Tunnel

Railway tunnel, opened 1864, on branch line from former Broadstone Station to Connolly Station, via North Wall. Tunnel is 292 yards (263 metres) east-west, with elliptical arch to east end, having rusticated limestone voussoirs and walling. Late twentieth-century extension to east, to front of tunnel, of concrete, with trapezoidal-profile metal parapets flanked by short pieces of recent brick walling with concrete copings. West end of tunnel not accessible to view.

This railway tunnel forms part of the railway infrastructure developed in Dublin in the mid- to late nineteenth century by the Great Southern and Western Railway Company, on a branch line connecting the company’s terminus at Broadstone (now disused) with Amiens Street (now Connolly Station) and their goods station at the North Wall. The line includes a number of stone bridges, the Phoenix Park Tunnel and the Liffey Viaduct. It has well-constructed masonry, as has the railway cutting within which it is sited. Together with the adjacent canal bridge this bridge is part of the history of transport development in the city.