Over the last few months I have been photographing the bridges over the River Blackwater in Munster. There are, by my reckoning, based on a close examination of Google Earth and the Ordnance Survey maps, twenty seven of them and they are presented below. If I have inadvertently omitted any I would be very much obliged to know.
My modus operandi in locating some of the more obscure bridges was to identify them first in Google Earth and/or the Ordnance Survey site. Then, using the Loc8 site I got the Loc8 8-digit alpha-numeric code for each one. By inputting these codes into my Garmin SatNav I was able to navigate directly to each place.
The names I’ve given to them are taken from the Ordnance Survey maps modern and historic. I’m not sure whether or not some of the names on the historic maps (e.g. Charles’s Bridge, Duarrigle; Colthurst Bridge, Rathcoole), which I’ve used in the absence of any name on the current OS map, are still used by local people as they may have fallen into disuse since Independence. Not that it matters really: this is not in any way an official compilation; it is purely for my own amusement.
The photographs are in geographical sequence, starting at the first bridge near the source of the river in County Kerry and ending at Youghal. Click on any image to see it in larger size.
1. DOCTOR’S HILL. The first bridge over the Blackwater, a few kilometres from its source in County Kerry.
2. BALLYDESMOND
Ballydesmond Bridge proved to be the most frustrating one to photograph – thick foliage prevented any access to the riverbed and I had to be content with these mere snapshots.
3. LISHEEN BRIDGE, FARRANKEAL. The nearest side is in County Kerry, the other in Cork.
4. MOUNTINFANT BRIDGE, LACKA CROSS. Out of sight over the bridge to the right is the large Munster Joinery factory.
5. NOHAVAL BRIDGE
6. DUNCANNON BRIDGE,RATHMORE
7. SHAMROCK BRIDGE, AHANE LOWER
8. CHARLES’S BRIDGE, DUARRIGLE
9. KEALE
10. COLTHURST BRIDGE, RATHCOOLE 
As I was making my way back across the field to my car after photographing this bridge I noticed a 4-wheel-drive vehicle with two men inside parked by the gate. The driver asked me what I had been doing. It transpired they were charged with keeping an eye on the place for a group of Cork City fishermen who had exclusive rights to this part of the river and they thought I had been poaching! Hard to blame them really as I was wearing wellingtons and a fisherman’s type vest and my tripod could have been mistaken at a distance for a rod.
11. BALLYMAQUIRK BRIDGE, BANTEER
12. ROSKEEN
13. LOMBARDSTOWN
14.LONGFIELD’S BRIDGE
15. MALLOW RAILWAY BRIDGE 
16.MALLOW N20 
17. MALLOW TOWN BRIDGE
18. KILLAVULLEN
19. BALLYHOOLEY
20. KENT BRIDGE, FERMOY (The long shutter speed of 30 seconds has rendered the moving traffic on this busy route as a blur.)
21. FERMOY M8 
22. CARRICKABRICK VIADUCT. In the 1966 film “The Blue Max”, a lot of which was shot in the locality, a stuntman flew planes underneath this viaduct several times.
23. BALLYDUFF
24. STRAND BRIDGE, LISMORE
25.AVONMORE BRIDGE, CAPPOQUIN
26. CAPPOQUIN OLD RAILWAY BRIDGE
27. YOUGHAL
A more conventional view of Youghal Bridge. This is the last bridge on the river and its size is a marked contrast to the humble structure at Doctor’s Hill near the source.
John Finn Photography 