Ardina Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A twin-arched hump-backed late 18th / early 19thC masonry bridge carrying a minor road over the Articlave River. It is of random rubble basalt construction throughout.
Both abutments continue outwards as tapered buttresses which are of similar profile to the angled cutwater which rises to arch spring level at each end of the central pier.
Both arches have equi-sized semicircular arches with roughly dressed voussoirs. The parapets are of roughly dressed basalt blocks laid to courses and coped with concrete. They contrast with the random rubblework of the spandrels below and have probably been rebuilt. There is a slight curve to the carriageway. The outside faces of the approach walls on the west side of the river have tapered buttresses.
The bases of the abutments and pier have been faced with concrete and the bed is paved with original stone slabs to minimise scouring.

Setting
The bridge sits in open countryside and is surrounded by fields on all sides.

Schedule:
Rubble basalt construction
Dressed basalt voussoirs

Historical information

An uncaptioned bridge is shown at this location on the 1830 OS six-inch map. The 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir for Dunboe Parish describes it thus: “This bridge … has two arches each 18ft in the span and of good architecture. The wall is 280ft long, 3ft high and 18 inches thick. The bridge on the top is 17ft 6in broad, 10ft of the wall is in bad repair. This bridge is on the leading road from the Downhill road to Coleraine … The road leading t this bridge is … kept in repair at the expense of the county”
The bridge is explicitly captioned as Ardina Bridge on the OS maps from 1853 onwards.
Judging by its plain style, it was probably built by the Londonderry Grand Jury under the presentment system in the second half of the 18th century or first quarter of the 19th.

References - Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/5/3/1, First edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 3 (1830).
2. OS Memoir for Dunboe Parish (1835). Reprinted as A. Day & P. McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Londonderry III, 1831-5, Roe Valley Lower, pp 62-63 (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991).
3. PRONI OS/6/5/3/2, Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 3 (1853).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A twin-arched rubble masonry road bridge of later 18th or early 19th century date. The bridge is asymetrical; the parapets have been replaced and concrete copings added; not of special architectural or historic interest.