BRIDGE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid-19th C twin-arched masonry road bridge over the River Dall on the SE approach to the village from Waterfoot.

The bridge is executed in squared and randomly-sized sandstone blocks, some of which are laid to courses and others brought to courses. The pier has an angled cutwater at both ends, rising to arch spring level and coped with dressed stone. The equi-sized arches are of segmental profile and have finely-dressed sandstone voussoirs. Their soffits are of random rubble.

The bridge is embellished with a dressed sandstone string course which runs across its face and continues around the out-projecting piers at both ends of the parapets. The parapets are coped with sloping dressed sandstone blocks.

The deck carries two lanes of traffic and a footpath along each side. It is lit by (modern) ornamental lamp posts at its SE and NW ends.

The bases of the abutments and pier are encased in concrete to minimise undercutting. A drain pipe projects through the downstream face of the bridge on its right bank side.

Setting:
The bridge is located immediately west of the junction of the main Larne-Ballycastle and Ballyemon roads. At its west end, a road runs SW into a carpark and a footpath NE along the left bank beside a row of shops. There is also a shop just beyond its NE end. The river bank had been revetted in stone and heightened to minimise local flooding.

Materials:
Walling Sandstone
Soffits Random rubble
Abutment/pier base Concrete

Historical information

The un-named bridge depicted on the 1832 OS map appears to be a 1792 rebuild of a previous one. It is described in the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir as "a plain, clumsy bridge on the south side of the town over the Dall River. It consists of three arches, two of which are elliptical and one semicircular. It is 90ft long by 21ft wide and is in tolerable repair."
The present bridge has only two arches and is obviously a later rebuild. It is probably the one shown on the 1857 and subsequent OS maps. Whether it was erected by the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland as part of the new Antrim Coast Road (1832-42) or in connection with a new line of road down Ballyemon (which meets the main road almost at the bridge) is, however, uncertain.

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.46 (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).

References - Secondary Sources:
1. F.W. Hamond, Antrim Coast & Glens Industrial Heritage, p.79 (Belfast: HMSO, 1991).
2. Department of the Environment N. Ireland, Cushendall Conservation Area (Belfast, 1993).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

A mid-19th century twin-arched masonry road bridge over the River Dall on the south east approach to Cushendall village from Waterfoot. Of particular quality, evident in its construction and embellishment with dressed sandstone. That it is a twin-arched replacement of a previous triple-arched bridge is also testimony to the advances in bridge construction and engineering by this time.
The bridge's original fabric survives in a largely unaltered state. Although it cannot be definitely attributed to the Antrim Coast Road scheme, it nevertheless continues to facilitate social and economic interaction along the Antrim coast and is of local interest.