Wilson's Bridge

Single-arch rubble stone hump back road bridge over canal, dated 1785, with dressed stone voussoirs, cut-stone stringcourse and rubble stone parapet walls having cut-stone date stone/plaque. Coursed dressed stone walls to abutments. Cut-stone piers. Rubble stone parapet walls. Cut-stone date stone/plaque. Single elliptical arch. Dressed stone voussoirs with cut-stone keystone. Squared rubble stone soffits with traces of render over. Sited spanning Grand Canal (Athy Branch) with tow path to east and grass banks to canal.

Wilson's Bridge is a fine stone bridge that forms an imposing feature on the Grand Canal (Athy Branch) and is one of a group of bridges on the section of that canal that passes through County Kildare. The construction of the arch that has retained its original shape is of technical and engineering merit - the arch is also unusual in having an elliptical profile where most of its counterparts are of round arches. The bridge exhibits good quality stone masonry and fine, crisp joints. The bridge is of considerable historical and social significance as a reminder of the canal network development in Ireland, which brought about many technical advances and encouraged the development of commercial activity in the late eighteenth century.