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Although it is certain that the Danes, at an early period, encompassed with ramparts and towers several of the cities and towns which they held in Ireland, their works have long disappeared, with the exception of Reginald’s Tower, Waterford, built in 1003. Though the walls and gates of a few ancient cities or towns remain, they are obviously of comparatively late date, and invariably found in connexion with places which we know to have been strongholds of the English. In some, as at Drogheda and at Athlone, the wall was of considerable height and thickness. That of Waterford, of which a portion remains, was strengthened with semicircular towers; but they are usually plain. The great majority of these works at present remaining in Ireland were spared as relics, for since the general introduction of cannon and gunpowder for siege purposes they could no longer be relied upon as fortifications. The walls of all the Anglo-Irish cities and towns, which were once remarkable for strength, and the security they afforded to the besieged, have been almost entirely destroyed. Several gates and towers, however, remain, and of these the finest may be seen at Drogheda.

St. Laurence’s Gate consists of two lofty circular towers, connected together by a wall, in the lower portion of which an archway is placed. The towers, as well as the wall by which they are connected, are pierced with numerous loop-holes; and it is probable that the latter was originally, upon the town side, divided into stages by platforms of timber, extending from tower to tower, otherwise the loop-holes could not have been used by the defenders of the gate; and we know that even in their most beautiful buildings, the ancient architects rarely added an unnecessary feature. The other remaining gate-tower of Drogheda is octangular in form, pierced with long, narrow loop-holes, wider in the centre than in the other parts, and was further strengthened by a portcullis, the groove for which remains nearly perfect. Since the period of Cromwell’s ‘crowning mercy,’ the successful storming of Drogheda, the walls of that place have been gradually sinking into utter ruin; but, from some portions which yet remain in a tolerably perfect state, an idea may be formed of their ancient strength and grandeur. Most of the gate-towers remaining in Ireland are square, and of considerable height. Their archways are generally semicircular; but there was a beautiful Pointed example at Ross, in the County of Wexford.

The tower by which the ‘Sheep’ Gate of Trim was once surmounted no longer exists. The adjacent wall seems to have suffered a like denudation. A lofty structure figured in the distance, the belfry of St. Mary’s Abbey,130 is of a late period of Gothic architecture.

Portions yet remain of the walls and flanking towers of Athenry, in the County Galway; but they are much dilapidated. One of the gateways still stands, through which the road entering the town now runs. It was originally defended by two towers, one of which has fallen; but the other has been preserved by the insertion of an archway spanning the road. In recent times it was with difficulty saved from destruction, a road contractor desiring to have it for the sake of the material; and that in one of the stoniest districts in Ireland. Concerning this structure there was a tradition amongst the neighbouring people that it was some time or other to fall upon the wisest man in Ireland. But the selfish official who coveted the stones seems to have had no fear on that account for his personal safety when passing beneath the arch, and, in reply to a gentleman who strongly objected to the proposed removal of the tower, on account of its interesting antiquity, he is said to have scouted the idea, declaring that any antiquity it ever possessed had gone long ago!

Kilmallock retains two of its four gates and much of its walls, which are in a fair state of preservation, and date from the reign of Edward III. These gates were very strong, and in times of need might have served as castles. In Clonmel the west gate is the only one now standing of four, and the remains of the walls surround the churchyard. Of the walls and gateways of Galway but a few pieces stand. These dated from 1270, and as late as 1651 the walls were perfect, with fourteen towers and as many gateways. Little of the four gates and walls which surrounded New Ross now remain; but one of the towers defending the wall still stands.

The walls of Londonderry, the most perfect in Ireland, are comparatively recent​—​they were raised in 1609​—​and have now seven gates. The walls and towers of Limerick were of very early date, and King John’s Castle is one of the finest Norman fortresses in the kingdom. The north tower is the most ancient; and it still possesses the original gateway. Since 1760, when the walls and ramparts were abandoned as defences, they have been allowed to decay, and much of them were removed for public convenience. A fine gateway may also be seen at Carrickfergus Castle, showing all the usual defensive appliances, portcullis, embrasures, and openings for dropping missiles or molten lead. The keep is also perfect, and has walls 9 feet thick.

The citizens of Dublin, generally, are not aware that patches of their old walls, including one gate or bar, still remain. The gateway is called St. Audoen’s Arch, and may be seen close to the ancient church of the same name. It is a fragment of an inner wall built by the citizens during the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce, at a time when he lay encamped at Castleknock, and daily threatened the city. The adjoining portion of the wall is here high and strong; but the gate-tower has been lowered almost down to its arch.

Of the structure whose origin is ascribed to Meyler Fitz Henry, but completed by Archbishop Henry de Loundres, A.D. 1223, a portion may possibly be concealed beneath the piles of modern edifices which represent the present Castle of Dublin. The Castle presents little that is of interest to the architectural antiquary, except he finds it in the massive walls of the Record Tower, the oldest portion of the group of buildings between the Castle yards.

Bridges.​—​That the Irish at an early period were in the habit of constructing bridges and causeways over rivers, or from the mainland to an island, or from one island to another, is a fact recorded in the ‘Annals’; and we are not wholly without some existing remains of that interesting class of structures. We read that in A.D. 1054 a bridge was built over the Shannon, at Killaloe, by Turlogh O’Brien. This work was no doubt of timber. It had probably been long decayed or destroyed when Richard de Clare obtained possession of the greater part of that county which still bears his name. But the ford was not so easily obliterated, and Killaloe was for a considerable time called ‘Claresford’ by the English. The little island of Begerin, near Wexford, was formerly connected with another island by a causeway, described by Mr. G. H. Kinahan as consisting of two rows of oak piles, set four feet apart, with about five feet between each pair. ‘On these piles,’ he remarks, ‘there would seem to have originally been longitudinal and transverse beams.’131 St. Ibar, who died in A.D. 500, had a church and monastery in Begerin, so that there is every probability that this bridge or causeway may be referred to a very early date. The islands of Devenish and Inismacsaint, in Lough Erne, both of which were monastic sites in the sixth century, had similar communications with the mainland. A number of the piles at the latter island may still be seen when the water is low. Many of the lake-dwellings, or crannogs, were, as we have seen, furnished with causeways connecting them with the mainland, or with neighbouring islets.

Few, if any, bridges formed of stone appear to have been erected in Ireland previous to the Anglo-Norman invasion; but the new settlers and their descendants constructed many, several of which remained down to a comparatively late period. Of these, perhaps old Thomond Bridge, which spanned the Shannon at Limerick, was the most remarkable. Low, flat, and narrow in its proportions, defended at one end by a tower and gateway, and exhibiting in its fifteen arches a variety of forms, chiefly Pointed, it constituted, with the castle, and the venerable tower of St. Mary’s Abbey in the background, one of a group of mediæval structures as imposing as they were picturesque. The bridge was, in all probability, coeval with King John’s Castle immediately adjoining. Having at length, in part, become ruinous, it was, in the past century, pulled down, and a structure more in accordance with the requirements of the nineteenth century occupies its historic site.

The Shannon, almost in our own time, was crossed by other bridges of considerable antiquity. That at Athlone was one of the most interesting and picturesque features of the old town. In its abutments were recesses intended for the refuge of foot-passengers whenever any vehicle was passing​—​a precaution rendered absolutely necessary by the narrow proportions of the ancient roadway. Near the centre, on the northern side, might be seen a very remarkable sculptured and inscribed monument; the stones which composed it were placed in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy.

At Newbridge, two miles from Leixlip, and crossing the Liffey, is perhaps the oldest bridge now remaining in Ireland. This ancient structure, which still remains apparently as strong as when it was built, was, according to Pembridge’s Annals, as published by Camden, erected in 1308, by John le Decer, Mayor of Dublin in that year. It is in every respect an interesting work of its kind, and promises, unless taken in hand by some ‘restorer,’ to stand the storms and floods of another five hundred years. Some sixty years ago it was sentenced to destruction as useless, and only escaped demolition through the influence of the then proprietor of St. Woolstan’s, Richard Cane, who, in a spirit worthy of all commendation, declared that he would rather bear the cost of a new bridge than see one stone of John le Decer’s work removed.