ARDCLINIS BRIDGE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An 1830s single-arch masonry road bridge over the Ardclinis Burn on the Antrim Coast Road between Garron Point and Glenariff.
The bridge is of randomly-sized squared basalt rubble brought to courses. Its low abutments spring directly from the rock. Its shallow segmental arch is embellished with dressed sandstone voussoirs and its soffit is of squared basalt blocks. There is also a dressed sandstone string course cross both faces, just above the arch crown. The parapets terminate in out-projecting piers around which the string courses continue. Both parapets were originally coped with sloping sandstone flags, but these have largely been replaced with concrete slabs on the upstream one.
Minor repairs have been effected in shuttered mass concrete to the crown of the arch soffit and a small satellite dish has been affixed to the upstream face of the bridge's E end.

Setting:
Immediately SE of this bridge, a laneway runs up to a modern farmhouse. At SW is a front garden to a modern bungalow.
A short distance downstream (to N) are the remains of the earlier hump-backed rubble basalt road bridge. Its two semicircular arches have partly collapsed, as have its parapets and upstream cutwater.

Historical information

The 1832 OS map captions a "new road in progress 1833" in the vicinity of this bridge. It also shows the original line of road and bridge across the Ardclinis Burn a short distance to the north. Whilst this earlier road and bridge are undoubtedly of 18th C date, the bridge under review was built by William Bald as part of improvement scheme to the Antrim Coast Road carried out between 1832 and 1842. Funded by the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland and implemented by William Bald, an eminent Scottish engineer, this was the largest civil engineering project ever undertaken in Ireland until then.
This 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir notes that the road had been partly opened within Ardclinis Parish, although there is no explicit mention of this particular bridge. However, it is likely that it had been built by then. It is captioned 'Ardclinis Bridge' on the 1857 OS map and subsequent editions.

References - Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/1. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 20 (1832).
2. 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir for Layd Parish. reproduced by A. Day & P. McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of Co Antrim IV - Glens of Antrim, p.7 (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1992).
3. PRONI OS/6/1/20/2. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 20 (1857).
4. PRONI OS/6/1/20/3. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 20 (1903).
5. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 20 (1920).
6. PRONI OS/11/25/14/1. OS 1:2500 map, Irish Grid sheet 25-14 (1973).

References - Secondary Sources:
1. F.W. Hamond, Antrim Coast & Glens Industrial Heritage, pp 61 and 85 (Belfast: HMSO, 1991).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
F. Structural System
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The quality of construction of this mid-19th C bridge is in marked contrast to its 18th C precursor; this is particularly evident in its dressed basalt construction and embellishment with contrasting sandstone. The shallowness of its arch also enabled a level deck, rather than the humped one evident in the earlier bridge. All the bridge's original fabric survives in a largely unaltered state. It is also of historical interest because of its association with the Antrim Coast Road project. It would undoubtedly have been of benefit to the local community in facilitating their social and economic interaction.