What makes it quietly unusual is the contrast built into its own fabric: the downstream face uses roughly dressed sandstone voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones that form each arch, while the upstream face is finished in well-dressed limestone. Whether this reflects a change in available materials during construction, a deliberate choice of economy over appearance, or simply the work of different hands at different moments, the result is a bridge that looks subtly different depending on which bank you stand on.

The structure carries the hallmarks of 18th-century bridge building in Ireland. Five semicircular arches span the river, graduated so that the central arch is the largest and the flanking arches step down in size towards each bank, a design that distributes the load and gives the bridge its characteristic rise. Low pointed cutwaters project from the upstream face at each pier; these triangular projections divide the current and reduce the pressure of floodwater against the stonework. A vertical stone coping runs along the top of the parapet walls on both sides. The bridge measures 7.22 metres in width, modest by later standards but typical of rural road crossings built before the improvements of the 19th century. The Araglin River drains a stretch of north Cork before joining the Funshion, and bridges along its course would have been essential links for farming communities and market traffic heading towards Kilworth and beyond.