Laxey Bridge

The crossing of the Laxey River

Laxey Bridge is not really a bridge. It is difficult to know exactly what it is. However, as this unusual structure does carry the A2 over the Laxey River, the term bridge seems the most appropriate. The problem is that the road crosses high above the river, at the top of a large embankment. The river therefore passes through in a lengthy tunnel which runs under two roads, two railways and an area of parkland. That doesn't really sound like a bridge at all.

Deep inside this confusing structure lies a small old stone arch, which is presumably the original bridge. At that time, the road probably dropped steeply down the side of the valley to cross the bridge and then climbed back up the other side. The oldest map available, the 1869 OS 25 Inch shows a bridge here, carrying a road on an embankment, but the detailing is insufficient to work out much more. In 1877 the Mines tramway was converted to a narrow gauge railway with the purchase of two engines. These tracks pass under the road on the east side of the bridge, as they did on the 1869 map. With the conversion to locomotive operation, a station was built above the washing floors at Laxey, and this appears to have been built out on the side of the road embankment, with pedestrian access across the river, using the prominent large stone arch which still stands today.

The mines railway was closed in 1929 and reopened in 2004, but the Isle of Man Electric Railway which reached Laxey in 1894, and was extended on to Ramsey in 1897, has run continuously. To carry the tracks, the bridge, which had originally just carried the road, was further widened or rebuilt to accommodate the railway in the 1890s. The road into the GlenMooar housing estate came later still, although it is difficult to know when, and the bridge for this presumably incorporated the tunnel section to the north under the park, although the reasoning behind the construction of this section is far from clear.