R173 road (Ireland)

R173 road shield}}
R173 road
Bóthar R173
IMGCarlingfordLough 0617.jpg
Carlingford Lough - R173 to Carlingford hugs the coast on the right
Route information
Length32 km (20 mi)
Location
CountryIreland
Primary
destinations
Highway system

The R173 road is a regional road in Ireland, running its full length in County Louth. It loops around Cooley Peninsula, mainly along the coast. It nearly encircles the Cooley Mountains.

It starts at a roundabout at Ballymascanlan, just north of Dundalk, where it meets the N52 and the M1/N1 roads. It then heads east, along the northern coast of Dundalk Bay to The Bush where it veers north, past the village of Grange to Carlingford. From there it heads NW along the southern shore of Carlingford Lough, through the village of Omeath to the Northern Ireland border where it becomes the B79 into Newry, County Down.

The R173 is a former Trunk Road and was previously numbered as the T62. The road is 32 km (20 mi) long.

In June 2024, construction began on the Narrow Water bridge connecting the road to the A2 road in County Down, under the Shared Island scheme.[1][2]

  1. ^ "Taoiseach announces Shared Island Funding to progress work on much anticipated Narrow Water Bridge Project". www.gov.ie. 29 June 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  2. ^ Kearney, Vincent. "Work on bridge between Louth and Down gets under way". RTÉ.ie.