Drumlea Bridge,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-span flat stone road-over-river bridge, erected c.1850, carrying the road on a northeast southwest axis across the Owenreagh River.

Two segmental-headed arches formed in tooled stone ashlar voussoirs rising from a projecting stone course at springer level and pointed v-cutwaters with coursed square stone spandrels. Spandrels rise to parapet level with tooled rock-faced coping. To either end of both elevations is a full-height stone ashlar pier before continuing as abutments. Stone ashlar soffits to all arches and two-lane bitmac carriageway.

Walls: Stone

Historical information

The bridge is marked on the first edition OS map but not captioned. On the second edition map it is captioned ‘Drumlea Bridge’. McCutcheon describes it as ‘worthy of attention’.

McCutcheon sets out the development of coaching services in the county in the 19th century and notes; “In the west of the county, beyond the Sperrins, the towns of Omagh and Strabane lay on the final stage of the Dublin-Derry mail coach route and both were well served by cross services, from Omagh to Enniskillen and Gortin, from Strabane to Castlederg and Dunnamanagh.” (p.41)

Primary Sources:

PRONI OS/6/6/19/1-2 – Ordnance Survey Maps (1833, 1854)

Secondary Sources:

McCutcheon, W.A. ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’, HMSO, 1980

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-span flat stone road-over-river bridge, erected c.1850. A well-executed stone bridge of the mid-nineteenth-century crossing a small river in a rural location exhibiting all the attributes of nineteenth-century engineering and fine stone masonry. It is a good example of the development of rural infrastructure in the west.