Glenasmole Roads

GLENASMOLE ROADSFort Bridge, over the Dodder, was built soon after 1821 and onDuncan’s map published in that year there was a ford shown atthis point with a footbridge beside it. Below the bridge is a verydeep hole in the river bed known as the sheep hole, into which thewater is precipitated over a high weir. A quarter of a mile belowthe bridge there was formerly a petrifying spring, that is, the watercontained a quantity of carbonate of lime, which, trickling throughthe moss and grass transformed them into hard stone. This springcan no longer be located and may have been diverted when thenew road was made. 9 Handcock, in his history of Tallaght, 1876,states that he took blocks of this stone for rockeries. Some yearsago, on a visit to Sally Park, Handcock’s old home, blocks of thisstone could still be seen lying about the garden.Fort Bridge, built after 1821 replaced a ford and a footbridge.8