Eel House Bridge, Florence Court, Co Fermanagh BT92 1DB

Eel House Bridge, Florence Court

This is an elegant and high-quality late 18th-century demesne bridge of considerable architectural merit, despite conservation work on the parapet in the 1990s that detracts somewhat from its overall quality. The bridge spans the Larganess River, situated 400 metres south-west of the main house and just south of the sawmill, with the Long Glade on its west side and the Pleasure Grounds on its east. It carries an unsurfaced tract built to convey traffic from the house yards into the southern area of the demesne through the Kennel Field.

The bridge is an elegant barrel-vaulted structure composed entirely of Carboniferous sandstone. It has a depth of 5.60 metres, a span of 3.70 metres, and a height of 2.35 metres from the soffit to the bed of the stream. Both sides are embellished with rusticated vee-jointed sandstone voussoirs of very good quality. The parapet was originally composed of a single course of large upright stones between 50 and 60 centimetres high, graduating very slightly at each end to 40 centimetres. It was rebuilt in random courses to approximately 60 centimetres in height during 1998–9.

A highly unusual feature is the brick-lined barrel-vaulted chamber located on the east side of the structure immediately south of the bridge arch. This chamber is a distinctive element with no obvious parallels. It has a depth of 4.90 metres, an internal height of 1.75 metres, and a span of 2.33 metres. While its soffit is of brick, the spandrels are of sandstone rubble and the sandstone voussoirs are undressed. The arch opening to the chamber is 0.94 metres high and lies 0.90 metres below the parapet base. Just inside the chamber is a ledge with a cobbled surface 0.60 metres wide and 0.30 metres high.

The chamber was formerly filled with water to the level of the ledge and used to store eels caught in the stream. The name 'Eel Trap Bridge', sometimes used, is misleading, as storage was the only function of this chamber.

The bridge and trackway do not appear on Mulvihill's 1768 map but are shown on the 1814 demesne map and the 1834 Ordnance Survey map and subsequent editions. The bridge was probably built when the landscape park was laid out in the 1770s, a dating supported by the similarity of the rusticated voussoirs to those in the Laundry and Stable Yards. However, the eel chamber itself is a later addition, probably made in the 1830s or 1840s when the Pleasure Grounds were laid out; the chamber bricks appear to be 19th-century and its arch opening does not have voussoirs matching those of the bridge.

Prior to the mid-1980s, the bridge was heavily overgrown with ivy while laurel hedges had encroached on the stream edges, making it virtually invisible from the Pleasure Grounds. Growth was cleared in 1985–7, and the bridge was refurbished in 1998–99 by the National Trust. During refurbishment, hardcore overburden was stripped to the structural arch stones, which were then waterproofed with 25 millimetres thickness of mastic asphalt applied to the outer stone and brick faces. The parapet was rebuilt but does not appear to be an exact replica of the original.