Construction
The Carrigrohane Straight was built around the late 1830s and early 1840s. Earlier maps such as Taylor and Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland (1776), or a map of Cork's Parliamentary Borough in 1832, do not show any track or path in this area. However, the first edition of the Ordnance Survey Map (1841–42) shows that work was in progress on the new road linking Cork City with Carrigrohane and Leemount Cross.
Before the building of the Straight, a few houses were to be seen in this area. An osiary lay at the city side, and this consisted of a swamp where willow trees grew. An expanse of green could be seen as fields stretched for miles around. The tradition that the road was a "Famine Road" may be partly true. Even though the Straight itself was built by 1842, the section as far as Leemount Cross (including Leemount Bridge) may not have been completed until during the famine (1845–50).
The building of the Straight, and its extension on to Leemount Cross, which necessitated the building of two bridges – one over the tail race of Carrigrohane Flour Mills, the second over the River Lee – changed the traffic pattern to the west of the city. Before the Straight and Leemount Bridge were built, the Model Farm Road took traffic to Ballincollig and Macroom, while the Lee Road led to Blarney, Coachford and Iniscarra. After the construction of the Straight and Leemount Bridge, a straight and flatter route reduced the importance of these roads and the Coachford or Iniscarra traffic could now merge with the Macroom traffic by crossing Leemount Bridge.
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