Overview
Kilsheelan Bridge is a triple-arch humpback of about 1820, carrying the road low over the River Suir with Slievenamon filling the skyline behind it. It stands on the north bank in the village of Kilsheelan, 8 km east of Clonmel, and for most visitors it’s a stop rather than a day out – somewhere to stretch the legs on the Suir Blueway and look upriver to the mountain. There’s no gate, no hours and no charge. If you’ve only ten minutes, walk to the middle of the span and turn to face Slievenamon across the Golden Vale.
The bridge itself
Records put the bridge at around 1820, and it’s listed in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (Reg. No. 22208404). It’s random rubble stone with dressed cut-stone voussoirs framing each arch, built to favour large, graceful spans over width – the same instinct behind the Gasworks Bridge downstream in Clonmel. A dry-arch pedestrian passage runs along the riverbank side, part of the original design, letting walkers and cyclists cross clear of the road traffic. The mix of rough rubble walls and finely cut arch stones is what gives the crossing its character.
Walking and cycling the Blueway
The Suir Blueway towpath runs 21 km from Clonmel to Carrick-on-Suir – flat, traffic-free, and passing right under the bridge. It’s popular with families, leisure cyclists and kayakers, and the bridge makes an easy spot to pause. The dry-arch crossing is level and works well for wheelchairs and buggies. Just north in the village, a manual level crossing on the R706 is still worked by hand from the original Great Southern & Western Railway signal cabin – so allow for a short wait if a train is due. Herons and the odd kingfisher work the reed beds along the lower banks.
Getting there
- By car: Kilsheelan is on the N24, about 8 km east of Clonmel; the R706 brings you into the village. There’s street parking by the shops and post office, a two-minute walk from the bridge.
- By bus: Bus Éireann routes 7 (Dublin–Cork), 55 (Waterford–Limerick) and 367 (Carrick-on-Suir–Clonmel) stop in the village.
- By rail: The nearest station is Clonmel, about 9 km away.
The village has two shops, a post office and a few pubs and cafés for refreshments and toilets.
Nearby
Kilsheelan is a tidy village – a Tidy Towns winner in 1975 and 1979 – and a short walk from the bridge gets you to the ruins of a 12th-century church and the 19th-century parish church. Across the Suir stands Castle Gurteen de la Poer, built in 1863 by the de la Poer family; it’s Victorian, not the Elizabethan pile it’s sometimes taken for. It has been home since 1998 to the artist Gottfried Helnwein, and in 2004 it hosted Marilyn Manson’s wedding to Dita Von Teese, which brought the quiet riverside a burst of unexpected attention.
Come on a still morning, when the Suir sits flat and the arches double in the reflection, and you’ll have the towpath more or less to yourself before the day-cyclists roll in.