and planks, and driven to a depth of ten feet into the
river clays. The form of the superstructure is unknown,
but planks, post-and-wattle, and poles are mentioned
in the early sources. A somewhat later timber plank
bridge, probably of thirteenth-century date, is known
from the river Cashen, County Kerry. It was carried
on trestles fitted into sole plates that had been pegged
into the riverbed. It had a span of 600 feet. The
earliest stone bridges were of clapper form. A prob-
able pre-twelfth-century example on the river Camoge
at Knockainey, County Limerick, survived until the
1930s.
In the eleventh century, major bridges were built
across the Shannon at Athlone, Athleague, and Killa-
loe. These were constructed not just to facilitate trade
and communication, but also to permit the rapid
deployment of armies. At least four successive bridges
were built at Athlone in the course of the twelfth cen-
tury. All follow the same pattern, built by the kings of
Connacht to give them easy access into midland Ire-
land, and destroyed as quickly as possible by the kings
of Mide to prevent such incursions. In Anglo-Norman
Ireland the responsibility for maintaining bridges
rested with the local community, which could rarely
afford the costs involved. Accordingly, from the early
thirteenth century, “pontage” grants were given to
communities permitting them to levy tolls on com-
modities brought into the town for sale. The monies
so collected were spent on building and maintaining
the bridge. In the fourteenth century important bridges
were built at Kilcullen, County Kildare (1319) and
Leighlinbridge, County Carlow (1320). These had the
effect of shifting settlements from the older ecclesi-
astical sites down to the bridging points, where they
have remained to this day. Surviving medieval
bridges, such as Adare, Askeaton, Slane, Trim, and
Babes Bridge, County Meath, are characterized by
pointed segmental arches, a width of between six and
nineteen feet, arch spans of about twenty feet, prom-
inent cutwaters, and high parapets that were sometimes
battlemented. Ancillary structures such as gatehouses,
water gates and slips were common in towns while
chapels (Dublin) and houses (Baal’s Bridge, Limerick,
and Irishtown Bridge, Kilkenny) were also con-
structed on bridges.
JOHN BRADLEY
References and Further Reading
O’Keeffe, Peter and Tom Simington. Irish Stone Bridges: His-
tory and Heritage. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1991.
O’Sullivan, Aidan. “The Clonmacnoise Bridge: An Early Medi-
eval River Crossing in County Offaly.” Archaeology Ireland
Heritage Guide 11. Bray: Archaeology Ireland, 2000.
See alsoArchitecture
BRIGIT (c.452–c.528)
The founder and patron saint of the monastery of Kil-
dare, St. Brigit (also Brigid, Bríd, Bride, Bridget) is
renowned as one of the three pillars of the early Chris-
tian Church in Ireland, along with Patrick and Colum
Cille. According to later medieval tradition, her remains
were buried with theirs at Downpatrick. She was also
the patron saint of the Leinstermen and was said to
protect them in battle. Her feast day is February 1.
No historical facts regarding Brigit and her works
can be determined with any certainty; her very exist-
ence has been a matter of debate. All that is known
about her is based on tradition, legend, and folklore,
but a considerable number of documents relating to
her have survived. These documents are among the
earliest known hagiographical material in Ireland and
include two extant Lives in Latin which date from the
seventh century; a hymn to Brigit, attributed to Ultán
of Árd-mBreccáin, may also date from the seventh
century. Among the other documents are two subse-
quent Latin Lives of uncertain dates; a fragment of a
Life in Old Irish, from around the late eighth or early
ninth centuries; a Latin Life composed by Lawrence
of Durham in the twelfth century; and a homiletic Life
in Middle Irish contained in the Book of Lismore.
Later hymns to Brigit also survive, and she appears
prominently in the martyrologies.
Brigit’s traditional genealogy makes her a member
of a prominent family of the Fothairt; she was suppos-
edly born at Faughart, near Dundalk, in County Louth.
The author of one of her seventh-century Lives, Cogi-
tosus, a monk of Kildare, relates that she was born to
noble Christian parents; her father was Dubthach and
her mother, Broicsech. Cogitosus describes the preem-
inence of the monastery in Ireland, as a community
for both men and women and as an episcopal see ruled
jointly by the abbess, Brigit, and her chosen bishop,
Conláed (Conleth). Their tombs, according to Cogito-
sus, are placed on either side of the main altar in the
church. Despite these details, Cogitosus’s Life consists
mostly of a series of miracle stories based on the
traditions of the community at Kildare: Brigit tames
wild animals, controls the weather, miraculously pro-
vides food, and even hangs her wet cloak on a sun-
beam. The other seventh-century Life, an anonymous
work known as the Vita Prima(because it is the first
of Brigit’s Lives in the Acta Sanctorumcompiled by
the Bollandists), uses the same sources as Cogitosus
but contains a higher incidence of folkloristic mate-
rial. In this Life, Brigit is the daughter of a nobleman,
Dubthach, and a slavewoman whom Dubthach sells
to a druid at his wife’s urging. The slavewoman is
set to work in the dairy, where she gives birth to Brigit
on the threshold at dawn. This birth legend persisted in
Brigit’s tradition, as did her association with dairyingBRIDGES