Tunny Bridge, Feumore Road, BT28 2LH

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Formal single-span stone-built bridge of perhaps c.1840, carrying a road over a drainage channel. The bridge is located on Feumore Road, roughly 3.5km north-west of the hamlet of Lower Ballinderry, with the drainage channel itself (the ‘Tunny Cut’) extending from Portmore Lough to Lough Neagh.

The bridge is constructed in coursed squared rock-faced rubble and has a relatively broad segmental arch with rock-faced voussoirs and a dressed string course over. The parapets have square end piers (which project on the outer sides) and stone coping which is dressed on top. There are several perfectly square blocks on the inner sides of the parapets which look as though they were intended as panels for datestones or armorials.

Historical information

The ‘Tunny Cut’ was probably constructed in the wake of the report by engineer Thomas Townsend made to the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1813, which recommended the drainage of ‘the bogs and inundated grounds…all round Lough Neagh’. The cut itself is shown on the OS map of 1832 along with ‘Tunny Bridge’. The present bridge may be slightly later, however, its formality and the relative sophistication of the segmental arch suggesting it may be a rebuild of c.1840.

The name ‘Tunny’ (Irish – ‘quaking bog’ or quagmire) appears to have been applied to this vicinity since at least the mid-17th century.

References – Primary sources
1 ' Map no.6 of the Lough Neagh District…by Thomas Townsend' (1813). Copy available online at https://www.lbrowncollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/BRO-04-BOG-36-P-Lough-Neagh.jpg {accessed 18 Febrauary 2019)
2 OS maps six-inch county series, Co. Antrim sheet 62, 1832, 1857, 1900-01
3 'Report from Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry Into the State of the law and practice in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland', (Dublin, 1845), p.478

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Tunny Bridge is located on Feumore Road, roughly 3.5km north-west of the hamlet of Lower Ballinderry. It is a formal single-span stone-built bridge of perhaps c.1840, carrying a road over a drainage channel called the ‘Tunny Cut’, which extends from Portmore Lough to Lough Neagh. The bridge is constructed in coursed squared rock-faced rubble and has a relatively broad segmental arch with rock-faced voussoirs and a dressed string course over, while the parapets have a stone coping which is dressed on top. The ‘Tunny Cut’ (‘Tunny’: Irish – ‘quaking bog’ or quagmire) was probably constructed in the wake of the report by engineer Thomas Townsend to the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1813, which recommended the drainage of ‘the bogs and inundated grounds…all round Lough Neagh’. The cut itself is shown on the OS map of 1832 along with ‘Tunny Bridge’. The present bridge may be slightly later however, its formality and the relative sophistication of the segmental arch suggesting it may be a rebuild of c.1840. It is a fine example of a stone bridge in a rural setting which retains much authenticity and little or no apparent alterations.