Glebe Bridge

Single-arch humpback canal bridge, constructed c.1840, over canal now disused. Bridge much overgrown. Coursed squared snecked limestone rubble walls to parapet. Elliptical arch with ashlar voussoirs and soffit. Steep earthen ramped incline from canal to road level. Sited spanning former Ulster Canal with towpath platform running underneath arch to north and remains of grass towpath to east and west.

Glebe Bridge is a fine stone bridge spanning the Ulster Canal through Armagh, Monaghan, Tyrone and Fermanagh from Lough Neagh to Lough Erne. The bridge continues in use for local access. It was named for its close proximity to a rectory and Saint Cillian’s Church of Ireland church to the north-east. The bridge exhibits good-quality stone masonry with crisp joints and snecked intersects. The use of squared rubble in this bridge makes it an interesting and pleasing contrast to other canal bridges in the area where more formally cut-stone blocks are seen. The bridge is a reminder of canal development in Ireland. The canal itself, built between 1825 and 1842 and was 74km (46mi) long, but its 26 locks were built narrower than on other Irish waterways, preventing through-trade, and had an inadequate water supply, falling into rapid decline from the mid-nineteenth century and abandoned in 1931.