1831, Sir Richard Griffith Report on Bridges he Built on Roads from Skibbereen to Crookhaven and Skibbereen to Bantry, Span, Cost, Location.

Richard Griffith 1784-1878, engineer and geologist, was dispatched to the Munster counties affected by the Whiteboy insurrection of 1821 and the agricultural depression after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1822, to conduct a survey.  His immediate concern was to improve the arterial routes. He bemoaned the huge time wasted with the then inadequate or non roads. In building bridges, he insisted on going to bed rock unlike the Grand Jury bridges which were easily washed away in floods.  He later constructed the road from Skibbereen to Crookhaven, employing at a peak 3,000 labourers. He also built the road from Ballydehob to Bantry, completed in 1826. Like his fellow engineers, Alexander Nimmo in Connaught and William Bald he placed his expertise at the service of the Irish people.

In 4000 BC the Babylonians had wheeled vehicles. As Richard Griffith observed they were unknown on the Mizen peninsula until his road to Crookhaven was completed. This is consistent with the accounts of various travellers in the 18th century.

Sir Richard Griffith Report on Roads Skibbereen, Crookhaven and Bantry 1831.