Bridge Clonmacnois was a major Early Christian monastic settlement located at the intersection of two major route-ways - the river Shannon from North or South and the Esker Riada from East to West. There is no natural fording point of the Shannon at Clonmacnois and the only historical evidence of a bridge is a reference in the Annals to an incident in 1158 AD. The discovery and recording by IUART (the Irish Underwater Archaeological Research Team) of a wooden structure crossing the river Shannon at Clonmacnois, Co. Offaly is an important Irish archaeological developement.
The project consisted of a "non-disturbance visual and probe survey" of a 10,800 sq. m. area of the bed of the river Shannon which identified 123 timbers. Most of these would have formed part of a structure comprising pairs of verticalposts, longitudinal and tranverse timbers.
	A number of stray finds including six dug-out canoes and two medieval iron axes were also found in the course of the survey. The bridge has been dated to 804 AD. The dating of the Clonmacnois bridge to the Early Christian period raises important issues in relation to the understanding of the background to its construction and carpentry and will make an important contribution to understanding the history of Irish woodworking.