Bridge over railway at Lower Island Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-arched hump-backed masonry bridge carrying the main road over a railway, built of snecked basalt with squared white limestone voussoirs to the segmental arch and similar quoins to the abutments. Sandstone copings. Vault of red brick supported on basalt abutments up to springing level under bridge. Later pipe run across north face of bridge supported on iron beam.
Setting: the bridge is located in a rural area and stands adjacent to a former railway station of similar date.

Historical information

Built c 1860 when the Carrickfergus to Larne railway line was constructed to the designs of its engineer, Charles Lanyon. Appears on the OS map which was surveyed in 1858 but not engraved until 1860.

References - Primary Sources

1. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 47.

Secondary Sources

1. J.R.L. Currie, The Northern Counties Railway, Vol I (Newton Abbot, 1973), pp 139 and 141.
2. W. A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1980), p 123 and p 207 note 138.
3. IHR 5585:17.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a good example of mid-19th century bridge engineering attributable to a leading architect of the time, but is not of any special historic or architectural interest beyond that.