DRUMAHAMAN BRIDGE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A later 18th C four-arch masonry road bridge over the Glenshesk River just above its confluence with the Carey River on the SE outskirts of Ballycastle.
The bridge is built in squared rubble blackstone. Only three arches span the river, the fourth one on the left (E) bank being dry in normal circumstances. The arches are all of the same size and have dressed sandstone voussoirs. There are cutwaters to both ends of the piers, rising to arch spring level. The parapets and approach walls are slightly advanced beyond the faces of the arches. The parapets were originally coped with chamfered and sloped sandstone blocks, but these now survive only at the W end of the upstream parapet, the rest having been replaced in mass concrete (of identical profile). The parapets on the E approach walls step down in line with the descending road.
The bed of the river is now concreted (it was probably paved originally) and there is a small vertical fall just beyond its downstream face to slow up the water and minimise scouring.
At the NW end of the bridge is a stepped concrete outfall from a drain. A concrete buttress has also been built on to the face of the E approach wall on its N side.

Setting:
The bridge crosses the flood plain of the Glenshesk River just before its confluence with the Carey River which flows in from E. There is a golf course on the E bank, now split by the main road. The steeper W bank is wooded to the SW of the bridge and there is a house and garden just beyond its NW end.

Historical information

An un-named bridge is shown on the 1832 OS map and it is explicitly captioned 'Drumahaman Bridge' on the 1857 map and subsequent editions. It is described in the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir as a plain bridge "50ft long, 22ft wide and consists of four semi-circular arches. It is in very good order".
Its materials of construction (rubble masonry) and comparative lack of embellishment suggest a later 18th century date of construction. A road crosses the river hereabouts on Taylor and Skinner's 1777 road map, although this may well be a ford or timber bridge rather than the present stone one.

References - Primary Sources:
1. G. Taylor & A. Skinner, Maps of the Roads of Ireland, surveyed 1777, p.273 (Dublin: 1778).
2. PRONI OS/6/1/9/1. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 9 (1832).
3. 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir for Ramoan Parish. reproduced by A. Day & P. McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of Co Antrim IX - North Antrim Coast and Rathlin, p.97 (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994).
4. PRONI OS/6/1/9/2. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 9 (1857).
5. PRONI OS/6/1/9/3. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 9 (1903-04).
6. PRONI OS/6/1/9/4. OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 9 (1922).

References - Secondary Sources:
1. F.W. Hamond, Antrim Coast & Glens Industrial Heritage, p.75 (Belfast: HMSO, 1991).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A later 18th C four-arch masonry road bridge over the Glenshesk River just above its confluence with the Carey River on the SE outskirts of Ballycastle.
The rubble masonry construction and lack of ornamentation exhibited by this structure are typical of 18th and early 19th century bridges. Apart from the concrete parapet copings, its fabric survives in a largely unaltered state. It is of local interest and has long facilitated social and economic interactions along the Glenshesk Valley.