Devonshire Bridge

Single-arch hump back bridge over river, built 1813-6. Rusticated Runcorn sandstone ashlar walls including rusticated Runcorn sandstone ashlar panelled piers on chamfered plinths with cut-Runcorn sandstone stringcourses supporting parapets having rusticated cut-Runcorn sandstone rounded coping. Single segmental arch with rusticated Runcorn sandstone ashlar radiating voussoirs centred on cut-Runcorn sandstone fluted scroll keystones. Sited spanning Colligan River.

A bridge erected for William George Spencer Cavendish (1790-1858), sixth Duke of Devonshire, representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century civil engineering heritage of Dungarvan with the architectural value of the composition, one attributed to Jesse Hartley (1780-1860) of Yorkshire replacing William Atkinson (c.1773-1839) whose 'expensive attempt...was frustrated by the abutments and foundations failing' (Leigh 1827, 149), confirmed not only by the construction in a striated multi-toned Runcorn sandstone producing a mild polychromatic palette, but also by the elegant "sweep" of the arch making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the Colligan River: meanwhile, a benchmark remains of additional interest for the connections with cartography and the preparation of maps by the Ordnance Survey (established 1824).