This was the first Clapper Bridge that we saw. We were walking along the Main Street in Graiguenamanagh when two men stopped us to have a chat and informed us that an amazing medieval bridge was just around the corner. They told us, though, that the bridge had seen better days because it had been recently destroyed by a flood.
We followed their advice all the same.
As a matter of fact the bridge wasn't in a good state, but we took a photo of it all the same.
UPDATE: June 16th, 2015 - Something has changed here after out last visit. The bridge has been partially reconstructed, but the tall tree behind the bridge has been cut, so the out-of-time feeling has disapppeared.
The reconstructed bridge is 3 metres long and follows an axis that goes southeast to northwest (110°-290°). A nice little waterfall joins the mainstream right before the bridge.
The bridge was built around 1210 by the Cistercian monks of the nearby abbey who built a mill on the bank of the Duiske river.
The bridge was the shortest route between the abbey and the mill, and in those times the monks would bring the corn from their abbey down to the mill, have it ground and return to the abbey.
The bridge was also a convenient walkway for the local people and remained so for hundreds of years.
The first photo in this page is from the 2010 visit.
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