Aghakista Bridge,Castletownbere, County Cork, Ireland

Within walking distance of Castletownbere is this little bridge. Once an active roadway it now leads to quiet forest with a gentle stream trickling nearby.

The bluish photograph above, was posted on a sign erected by the Beara Historical Society in 2005. It is an old picture showing the bridge as it looked a hundred years ago. The coloured photograph below it is the one I took to show how the bridge looks today.

The information on the sign reads as follows:

Aghakista Bridge

The Aghakista Bridge over the Kista stream, was part of the original route from Glengarriff to Castletown Berehaven. This ‘old road’ to the town preceded the present south road and the bridge was replaced by Brandy Hall Bridge downstream. Across the stream can be seen the remains of a 19^th century tuck mill known locally as “Florry Kelly’s Mill”. Tuck mills were used to shrink woolen cloth by churning it in vats. Note rock cut to divert water from stream into the mill wheel. An example of much later industrial history can be seen in the water tank and pump used to pump water to the new creamery at Derrymihin West when it commenced operating in the 1930’s. The old schoolhouse at Brandy Hall Bridge closed in 1932 and the handball alley was built on the site.

This spot and the families who once lived here are celebrated in an old poem by D.F.MacCarthy of The Square, Castletownbere:

The Old Mill

By D.F.MacCarthy

There’s a dear little spot at the side of Clountreem

Where Foildarrig slopes down to the swift running stream,

Where the Powers and the Murphys, the Kellys and Sheas,

Drew their first breath of life and enjoyed their best days

When the Mill and the School stood within a stone’s throw,

And the seine boat and sand barge were anchored below

Where the green linnet warbled from furze bush all day,

And corncrake nightly was heard o’er the bay

Generations of Murphys, O’Sheas, Kellys and Powers,

Around the old carding mill spent many hours

While over the Bridge where the sea joined the stream,

The children got schooling and religion free

And west of the Bridge stood Tim Harrington’s cot

And Clarke’s modest mansion must not be forgot

Nor the Bridewell that never was built there for use,

‘Cept for pounding a donkey caught roaming loose

The school and the priest’s house, the Mill, Bridge and stream,

Have figured in many a fond exile’s dream

And where-ever they are, from Clountreem to Cathay,

A Power or a Murphy, a Kelly or a Shea,

Everlasting longs for the glad sight once more

Of the Mill and the school on that beautiful shore

And the graves of fond parents who rest on the hill

Set halos around Florry Kelly’s Mill.