Categories of Special Interest
Architectural Historical Social Technical
In Use As
1790 - 1810
Single-arch hump back road bridge over canal, c.1800, with cut-stone stringcourse. Rendered, c.1960. Cement rendered walls, c.1960, probably over rubble stone construction with concrete coping. Rubble stone walls to splayed wings. Single elliptical arch. Rendered voussoirs. Squared rubble stone soffits having cut-stone stringcourse under and traces of render over. Sited spanning Grand Canal with tow path to east and grass banks to canal.
Ponsonby Bridge, although significantly altered through the application of cement render, is a fine bridge that forms an imposing feature on the Grand Canal 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 splayed wings exhibit good quality traditional stone masonry that provides an indication of the original appearance of the construction of the bridge. 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/early nineteenth centuries.