Graiguecullen Bridge

Every boat bound for the lower Barrow has to fit under this bridge. Waterways Ireland names Carlow Bridge as the lowest on the navigation, with an air draft of 2.58 m over a width of 2.4 m, and stresses that its figures are a guide only, so measure your boat with canopies, screens and aerials down before setting off from Athy or Graiguenamanagh, and remember that the clearance shrinks when the river is high. The bridge was first built in 1569 and was rebuilt and widened in 1815, when it was renamed Wellington Bridge after Waterloo; locally it is Graiguecullen Bridge. Its stone arches cross the river by way of a small island, and in the nineteenth century a house was even built on the bridge. The OPW gauge just below Carlow Lock gives a rough idea of how high the river is running.