Ballinderry Bridge has five arches, not four – worth saying, because Wikipedia gets it wrong and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, which dated the limestone span to around 1790, gets it right. It carries the R493 over the Ballyfinboy River on the south side of the village, halfway between Nenagh and Terryglass, and it has done so for more than two centuries.
It’s a handsome piece of work for a country road bridge. The arches are low and round, the parapets splayed, and on the upstream (west) side the piers carry V-shaped cutwaters that split the current before it hits the stone. The southernmost arch is a flood arch, kept clear for the river when the Ballyfinboy is up. The piers have since been cased in concrete and the whole bridge repointed, so it’s sound rather than pristine.
Be honest about what this is, though: a working road bridge with traffic on it and low parapets, not a place to stand around admiring the view. Five minutes from the bank is plenty. If you’re on the cycle route it’s a natural pause; if you’re not, the reason to turn off the road is the village rather than the bridge itself.
In the village
The old pub just south of the bridge, Elsie Hogan’s, has been licensed since 1878 and now trades as Dé Róiste’s Smokehouse and Restaurant – barbecue and craft beer in an ivy-clad roadside building, and the best feed for miles. A short way along the river stand the ruins of Ballinderry Mill, a rubble-stone mill with its water wheel still in place, listed as a protected structure by Tipperary County Council. The two together tell you what the Ballyfinboy was for before it was scenery: power and a crossing.
On Saturdays from 10am to 1pm the Lakeshore Community Market sets up here, though it rotates between several Lough Derg villages, so check it’s Ballinderry’s turn before making the trip. Local lore also points walkers on the 5km Ballinderry Loop Walk (from Stonepark Lodge) to a ‘Mouse House Bridge’, claimed as one of the oldest toll bridges in Europe and built in the 1770s – but that’s a separate crossing on the loop, not this one, so don’t go expecting Ballinderry Bridge to be it.
Getting there
The bridge is on the R493 between Nenagh (about 7km south) and Terryglass. Cyclists can pick it up on the North Tipperary Cycle Route, which starts at Banba Square in Nenagh and passes straight over it. There’s no car park at the bridge – park considerately in the village if you’re stopping. It’s free and open all year; the deck is narrow with low parapets, so it isn’t suitable for wheelchairs or buggies, and keep dogs on a lead near the road.
