archaeological & built heritage assessment - The Heritage Council

dwelling / earthworks (7) / deer park / souterrain / possible road / crannógs (9) / fulacht fiadh / field
banks (3) / castle / tower / burial ground / nunnery tradition / historic town (Boyle) / possible barrow /
deserted settlement / and a bridge. It is notable that in this area a distinct religious tradition was set up in
the late medieval period in the form of ecclesiastical remains and abbeys etc., mostly on Lough Key itself.
The area was also densely populated at this time, especially within the portion of Rockingham since the
majority of enclosures are located there as well as crannógs on the shores of the lough.
Area 4
Area 4 has been defined as that from Carrick-on-Shannon to Roosky, including Jamestown, Drumsna, Mohill and
Dromod (Jamestown bridge, Jamestown canal, Drumsna bridge, Albert lock, railway bridge, Dromod harbour,
Roosky lock, Roosky bridge)
The bridge at Carrick-on-Shannon had been erected in 1718 to replace an earlier one; the local landlord,
Sir George St George, had enjoyed the toll rights on the first bridge in return for keeping it in repair and
he was probably also involved in the construction of the eighteenth century bridge (Delaney 1987). John
Brownrigg, who later became the engineer to the Directors General of Inland Navigation, surveyed the
river in the 1790s and remarked: ‘A Boat of Burden cannot in summer pass the Bridge of Carrick’ (ibid.). He
said that the fifth arch from the west side was the best for navigation but it was only 28ft 6in wide with
about half the headroom of the present bridge. These comments suggest that some boats were using the
river north of Carrick-on-Shannon even though navigation works had not been extended above the town.
Upstream of the bridge a harbour had been excavated in 1829 on land donated by the St Georges and this
was approached by a narrow channel.
In the 1830s, when Rhodes was surveying the river for the Shannon Commission, Carrick-on-Shannon
was a town of some 2000 inhabitants. The commissioners decided to replace the old bridge and it was
blown up in 1845. The original plans envisaged an opening arch in the new bridge however no opening
spans were made upstream of the Jamestown Canal because of financial constraints (ibid.). Despite this,
quay walls were built and the old harbour above the bridge was enlarged.
The railway line follows the river closely from Carrick-on-Shannon to Lough Bofin crossing it just below
the Jamestown Canal, although it is only visible from the river from time to time. This was the Old
Midland Great Western Railway, with its line to Sligo, passing through Carrick-on-Shannon in 1862.
Lough Corry consists of three small lakes connected by wide stretches of river. South of this lake, the
river turns east and begins its great loop; part of this loop is not navigable and is by-passed by the
Jamestown Canal. The Shannon Commissioners found that they had to replace the bridge at Jamestown
and it subsequently suffered damage in the 1920s when one of the arches was blown up; approaching from
upstream the arch that was substituted is still clearly visible being of a lighter colour than the rest of the
bridge. The weir located here was built by the Commissioners who first had to remove old mill works
previously situated there before building their open weir wall. However these works failed to curtail
flooding problems and studies were carried out in the 1860s. It was recommended that the alleviation of
flooding would be achieved by the re-siting of this weir at a location upstream of the bridge where the
approach channel would be less constricted but this was not implemented because of the cost and,
instead, sluice gates were eventually fitted in the 1880s so that the flow could be regulated (Delaney
1987).
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