Arch Brae Bridge & Embankment, Deer Park, Florence Court, Co Fermanagh

Arch Brae Bridge and Embankment, Deer Park, Florence Court, County Fermanagh

An 18th-century stone bridge set within an inclined stone embankment, located at the north-east corner of the deer park at Florence Court. The structure dates from approximately 1760–1779, likely contemporary with the creation of the landscape park in the 1770s.

The embankment borders the Florence Court and Deer Park townlands and originally carried the old Coach Road southward towards the mountain, serving as part of the eastern boundary of the Deer Park. The embankment is approximately 80 metres long and 5 metres wide, rising to a maximum height of around 4 metres above ground level. Its battered side walls are composed of random rubble with stone buttresses providing additional support on each side. The road surface was delimited by parapets approximately 80 centimetres high. The embankment is now derelict and overgrown, and Forest Service planting completely obscures the surrounding area.

The bridge comprises a single three-centred arch with a span of 3.40 metres and a height of 2.45 metres to the underside of the crown. The arch springs from abutments averaging 1.30 metres high and extends 4.93 metres through the embankment. The soffit is of split Carboniferous sandstone rubble, while the spandrels and abutments are of roughly dressed masonry in irregular courses. The voussoirs are of finely dressed stone. Some stone vaulting has fallen slightly. On the east side of the archway stand a pair of chamfered masonry gateposts standing 1.80 metres high; one is broken but still carries a wrought iron gate. A wooden gate was formerly set across the west (deer park) side of the archway until recent years. A second bridge, now blocked with stone rubble, formerly existed a short distance to the north within the embankment, originally having a span of 2.50 metres with abutments 1.40 metres high supporting a three-centred stone arch 1.92 metres high.

The demesne of Florence Court was originally laid out in 1719–1720. At that time, the deer park extended as far as Gorteen Wood and the old Coach Road had not yet been built. The road appears on D. McKimm's 1814 demesne map and the first Ordnance Survey edition of 1834, suggesting construction by 1814. The archway served two purposes: it allowed deer to pass from one section of the deer park to the other beneath the road, and the presence of cut stone voussoirs indicates it was also originally built to allow a carriageway to pass from the east side (the Old Deer Park) into the main Deer Park. This carriageway remained in use until the mid-20th century. By the 1830s, when the Ordnance Survey map showed the area largely under trees, the Old Deer Park on the east side had been abandoned as a functioning deer park and incorporated into the landscape park. At this point, gates would have been installed on the archway to prevent deer escaping. The public road was carried by the embankment until the 1960s, when it was relocated to run alongside the west side of the embankment, where it remains.

The architectural character of the archway is enhanced by its use of a three-centred rather than segmental arch, with effort evident in the execution of the voussoirs. Its principal interest lies in its former function serving as the boundary of the deer park and as a means of carrying the road through the park, while also permitting visitors to avoid crossing the public road. The bridge and embankment survive as important functional vestiges of the area's former use and are unusual features in their own right, possessing significant industrial archaeological interest.