Kilmacow Bridge, County Kilkenny

What is recorded here

Kilmacow Bridge in Milltown got its 1775 rebuild with bits of the medieval bridge still in it. Eight arches, and underneath all that, the ancient builder’s promise: ‘Sure, the old one’s grand if you don’t count the parts we’re replacing.’

Eight-arch rubble stone road bridge over river, c.1775, incorporating fabric of earlier bridge, c.1600. Random rubble stone walls with rubble stone triangular cut-waters to piers to north, and squared rubble stone coping to parapets. Series of eight pointed segmental arches with squared rubble stone voussoirs, and rubble stone soffits having render over. Sited spanning River Blackwater with overgrown grass banks to river.

A well-composed bridge forming an important element of the civil engineering heritage of the locality: believed to incorporate the fabric of a late medieval counterpart on site the bridge also represents a vital component of the archaeological heritage of Kilkenny. The traditional construction in unrefined rubble stone lends a rustic quality serving to integrate the bridge pleasantly into the surrounding rural landscape.

From the Buildings of Ireland (National Inventory of Architectural Heritage) record 12329008

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