2025:331 - O’Hanrahan Bridge, New Ross, Wexford
County: Wexford
Site name: O’Hanrahan Bridge, New Ross
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WX029-013----
Licence number: 25E0153
Author: Paul Stevens
Author/Organisation Address: c/o Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS), Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare
Site type: Early modern cobbles and quay wall
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 671651m, N 627707m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.396200, -6.947189
Archaeological monitoring of Ground Investigations (GI) groundworks of a proposed renovation of the O’Hanrahan bridge, located in Rosbercon and New Ross townlands in New Ross Town, Co. Wexford.
The scope of the development comprises upgrades to the bridge and both riverbanks of the bridge at New Ross and Rosbercon, County Wexford. GI works consisted of twelve trial pits, two boreholes and one Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey in two clusters at the eastern and western bridge abutments. All GI works were exclusively land-based with no in-water investigations.
The proposed development is located within the Zone of Notification (ZoN) associated with the Historic Town (WX029-013—-) of New Ross, which dates from the Anglo-Norman period. A Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment Report prepared for the scheme by AMS (ROD 2023, chapter 14) determined low impacts to one known archaeological site by the works. O’Hanrahan bridge is a concrete single span structure built in 1966 that replaced an earlier bridge upstream.
Archaeological monitoring was undertaken on a continuous basis for a period of two weeks.