Bridge, Liscalgot Road, Creggan, Crossmaglen

Bridge at Liscalgot Road, Creggan

This is a triple-arched masonry bridge carrying Liscalgot Road over the River Creggan, constructed around 1800. It is built of random rubblestone with a humpbacked deck profile. The three arches are semi-circular in section, with a large central arch flanked by smaller arches to the north-east and south-west. The piers feature V-shaped cutwaters that rise to arch level and are capped with sloping triangular caps. The voussoirs comprise a carefully shaped inner layer of cut-stone with an upper layer of natural split stones. The arch soffits have been lined with corrugated metal.

The northern parapet has been rebuilt in uncoursed quarried rubblestone with a concrete coping and a double layer of castellated rough stones. The southern parapet retains its humped profile and comprises random rubblestone with coursed soldier coping. Four tie rods with pattresses are visible on the spandrels. The parapets sweep sharply at the north-eastern approach to accommodate the road. The bridge carries a bitumac carriageway with narrow footpaths on either side and retains its original width of approximately 20 feet, showing no evidence of widening.

The bridge is situated adjacent to a tree-lined avenue that formerly led to the parsonage and Creggan Church, within a landscape of agricultural fields and trees south of Creggan village. The road itself was only partially in existence at the time of Rocque's map of County Armagh in 1760. The bridge was first marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835. It marks the southern boundary of Poet's Glen, a valley associated with Creggan Church and historically significant as the burial place of several notable Gaelic poets including Art McCooey, Padraig MacAliondain and Seamus mor MacMurphy.

The bridge is believed to have been constructed during the time of Dr James Archibald Hamilton, who served as Rector from 1784 to 1790 and is recorded as having carried out substantial improvements to the parsonage demesne, including the planting of trees and the construction of a new wing. Hamilton later became astronomer and keeper of the Armagh Observatory and Museum in 1790. The style and construction are consistent with late 18th to early 19th century bridge building. The semi-circular arches with minimal side thrust, combined with the right-angle crossing of the river, suggest builders of limited experience, as evidenced by the abrupt change of direction to the road leaving the bridge to the east. However, the substantial width of the structure is more characteristic of bridges from the later period rather than the narrow rural bridges typical of the 18th century.