Killeter Bridge,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four-span road bridge with a marked hump in the centre, built c.1780, carrying Carn Road over River Derg. Random rubble abutments, spandrels and parapets; square drainage channels to centre of elevations; cement repairs to coping. Four round-headed arches with rubble voussoirs; V-shaped cutwaters to piers over roughcast plinth. Arch soffits are cement rendered.

The carriageway is approximately 5m wide. Parapet wall to south has been partially replaced with recent rubble walling to west and rendered walling to east. At north-east, stone steps provide access to riverbank. Road bound from agricultural land to north and south by hedging.

The bridge is located on a rural road to the west of Castlederg within agricultural
setting; farm complex to south.

Roof N/A
Walling Random rubble
Windows N/A
Rainwater goods N/A

Historical information

The bridge appears, uncaptioned on the 1833 OS Map. On the 1853 map it is captioned ‘Killeter Br’. St Bestius’ Church of Ireland and the town of Killeter are nearby. The bridge has a hump-back form with semi-circular arches, typical of seventeenth century packhorse bridges but the multi-span construction and presence of a parapet wall (absent in early bridges) indicates that the bridge is of later eighteenth-century date, before the wide-spread use of cut-stone ornamentation.

Photographs from the McCutcheon collection show an ‘inscribed stone from Killeter Bridge in neighbouring farm’ which bears the date 1786 and the names of those who built it, illegible from the photo except for ‘John Campbell’.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/23/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/23/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1853)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/23/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4. NI Environment Agency McC A6/36 - McCutcheon Collection (undated, c.1965)

Secondary Sources

1. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Impressive four-span road bridge, built c.1780, carrying Carn Road over River Derg. This substantial bridge has a hump-back form typical of seventeenth century packhorse bridges but the multi-span construction indicates that the bridge is of a later date. The bridge has been recently repaired in places but this does not detract from the overall quality and impact of the structure within its rural setting and it remains an excellent example of eighteenth century engineering in rural Ireland.