West Tunnel, Mussenden Road, Castlerock, Co Londonderry, BT51

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

One of a pair of railway tunnels located between Coleraine and Limavady Junction, built c.1853. The West Tunnel runs through a headland under Mussenden Temple in 283 metre (310 yard) long sweeping curve from the west side of Portvantage Glen to the east end of Downhill Strand.

West portal
The semicircular-headed western portal, directly below Mussenden Temple at the Downhill Strand end of the tunnel, extends slightly beyond the face of the cliff. It has rusticated and margined abutment quoins and voussoirs; the latter step into the spandrels and have a plain keystone. The abutments merge into sloping buttresses extending beyond the face of the portal. The spandrels and seaward side of the projecting section of the portal are of random basalt blocks, with a rusticated string course over. Above is a low parapet of coursed basalt blocks, the coping of which has mostly been replaced with mass concrete. The extrados of the tunnel, behind the parapet, is covered with grass.
A modern metal sign in front of the portal notes the tunnel’s number as 197 and that it is 283.2m long with refuges every 45m along it on its seaward side.
The cliff directly above the portal has steel wire netting affixed to it to prevent rocks falling on to the line. Beyond the portal, the line continues westwards in the direction of Londonderry along a raised artificial platform above the shoreline.

East portal
The portal at the east end of the tunnel is a semicircular-headed arch detailed as the West portal. Its spandrels and parapets are of roughly-dressed random basalt blocks, brought to courses. A dressed horizontal string course runs along the base of the parapet, which is coped with advanced dressed basalt blocks.
A modern metal sign in front of the portal notes the tunnel’s number as 197 and that it is 283.2m long with refuges every 45m along it on its seaward side.
The cliff directly above the portal has affixed steel wire netting to prevent rock falls. From here, the railway line continues eastwards along a 120m long embankment just above the rocky shore to the west portal of the East Tunnel (HB03/12/031A).

Setting
The tunnel runs from the tranquil Portvantage Glen through a high sea-washed headland to the east end of Downhill Strand. The ground above forms part of the National Trust’s Downhill Estate.

Schedule:
Basalt abutments and linings
Brick soffits

Historical information

This section of the railway, between Coleraine and Limavady Junction, was opened in 1853 by the Londonderry & Coleraine Railway Co. Its opening completed the line between Coleraine and Londonderry, but it was not until the opening of a bridge over the River Bann at Coleraine in 1860 that there was through running between Belfast and Londonderry.
From 1861, the line was operated by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway. The BNCR was taken over by the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1903; this company was renamed as the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1923. After nationalised in 1949, the line was operated by the Ulster Transport Authority and, from 1967, by Northern Ireland Railways. Translink, the NIR’s successor, continues to operate the line today.
Work started on the tunnels at Downhill in October 1845, the contractor being Marshall Brothers. They brought over English navvies experience in tunnel blasting using explosives. The first blasting operation was ceremoniously performed by Lady Bruce, wife of the landowner: “the explosion which followed was hailed on all sides with loud lasts of enthusiastic applause”.
The blasting away of some 30,000 tons of rock to create a passage through a headland just beyond the west end of the West Tunnel, on 6 June 1846 attracted even more attention, having been widely advertised as ‘The Great Blast’. Steamers were chartered to enable spectators to witness the scene, of which one remarked that it was “second only in importance to the great explosion of the chalk cliffs at the Shakespeare Tunnel on the Dover railway …”.
The tunnels were eventually blasted through in July 1847. In this respect they are said to be the first railway tunnels in Ireland, but both still had to be lined with brick (which was made at Articlave, near Castlerock). The two tunnels and the rest of the line finally opened in July 1853. They are both explicitly cited on the 1848-52 OS six-inch map and later editions.

References - Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/5/2/2, Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 2 (1848-52).
2. PRONI OS/10/5/2/11/1. First edition OS 25-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 2-11 (1904).
3. PRONI OS/10/5/2/12/1. First edition OS 25-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 2-12 (1904).

References – Secondary sources:
1. A. McCutcheon, Railway History in Pictures, Ireland vol.2, p.23 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1970).
2. J.R.L. Currie, The Northern Counties Railway, vol.1, pp 67-69 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1973).
3. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, p.169 and plate 37.3 (Belfast: HMSO, 1980).
4. S. Johnson, Johnson’s Atlas & Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland, p.104 (Leicester: Midland Publishing, 1997).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

K. Group value
Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed
Not listed

Evaluation

The West Tunnel is a 283m long rock-cut rail tunnel constructed in 1845-52 through a basalt headland underneath Mussenden Temple, west of Castlerock. There are relatively few such tunnels in Ireland and this is one of the earliest. It was constructed using the relatively innovatory technique of blasting rather than pick and shovel. Despite its utilitarian function, both its portals exhibit a degree of embellishment. The juxtaposition of cliff and sea give it a spectacular setting and it also has group value with the East Tunnel (HB03/12/031A). The East and West Tunnels were scheduled in December 2016, as this was felt to be the most appropriate form of protection. SMR Ref: LDY 002:502.