placenamesBarringtonsbridge
Droichead Barrington
Barringtonsbridge takes its name from an early nineteenth-century iron bridge whose construction supported the Barrington family’s growing estates in east Limerick.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Droichead Barrington · Irish · main form · validated name
- Barringtonsbridge · English · main form
Place & story
Doyle’s iron bridge of 1818
The bridge inscriptions identify Matthew Barrington, the maker Doyle and the date August 1818. Brian Murphy's bicentenary study connects the structure with James Doyle's Clare Street iron foundry in Limerick, established in 1806. Nine curved cast-iron pipes carry the roadway across a span of just over sixteen metres. The crossing therefore preserves a substantial product of local iron manufacture, rather than an imported bridge merely assembled in the county. [2]
The road into the Barrington estates
Murphy places the bridge within Matthew Barrington's plans to acquire and develop property around Glenstal. Correspondence from 1818 records negotiations for leases of Carbery family lands, including Cappercullen and Glenstal. Subsequent estate records document extensive tree planting. The bridge provided access for this expanding enterprise, linking an apparently small river crossing with the creation of the much larger landscape later associated with Glenstal Castle. [2]
The village recorded by Lewis
In 1837 Samuel Lewis described Barrington's Bridge as a small village on the road from Limerick to Abington, beside the river he called the Mulkern. He recorded a hotel, a penny post from Limerick and a constabulary station. A new national schoolhouse included separate accommodation for its master and mistress. His account shows that the crossing had become the focus of a settlement providing transport, education and administrative services. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Limerick
- Barony
- Clanwilliam
- Civil parish
- Clonkeen
- Civil parish
- Killeenagarriff
- Coordinates
- 52.64390, -8.47085
- Logainm ID
- 1167564 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Barringtonsbridge. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Barrington’s Bridge:1818–2018,Glenstal Abbey Chronicle,Autumn/Winter2018,pp.7–10 · Brian Murphy OSB,Glenstal Abbey
- Barrington’s Bridge:A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland,1837 · Samuel Lewis; historical text transcribed by Library Ireland
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-07-20. How this page was prepared.