Owencarrow Viaduct

Freestanding line of rectangular-plan coursed rusticated granite piers with concrete copings, pair of cast-iron piers, pair of concrete (?) piers, and four-arch bridge, built c.1903, all part of defunct Owencarrow Viaduct on former Letterkenny to Burtonport line. Arches to bridge are segmental, with cut-stone rusticated voussoirs and with rendered copings to parapets. Sited crossing Abhainn Choradh [Owencarrow River].

A striking feature in the local landscape, these piers of various types, and a bridge, are the vestiges of the former Owencarrow Viaduct, a structure of considerable architectural and technical significance to the region. It was built to carry the Letterkenny to Burtonport railway line which opened in 1903 and closed in 1947. This railway came at the end of the expansion of communications and transport networks in Ireland in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. The structures exhibit high-quality stone masonry in the piers and the bridge. The robust texture of the various elements enhances the visual aesthetics of the structure in the landscape.