Milestone

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A dressed granite post embedded in a roadside bank on the west side of the Newcastle – Kilkeel road several yards south of a bend warning sign. It stands 60cm high and is c.23cmn square in cross-section with a pyramidal top. The figure ‘19’ is cut 15cm high into the road-facing surface (the other surfaces are now hidden).

Historical information

This mile marker first appears on the 1901 OS 6" map (sheet 53). Given that the distance is in Irish, rather than Imperial, measure it was almost certainly extant at the time of the 1859 map, but simply not marked. It probably dates from the late 1700s or early 1800s, if not before (it is uncertain whether the mile intervals shown along this road on A. Taylor and G. Skinner's Maps of the roads of Ireland, 1777 correspond with actual markers).

Primary source:
1. PRONI – OS 6/3/53/1 (1834 map).
2. PRONI- OS 6/3/53/2 (1859 map).

Secondary source:
1. J & N Newell, 'Mourne milestones', in 12 Miles of Mourne, vol.5, (Kilkeel 1992) pp. 58-60.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

There were 24 milestones between Newry and Newcastle, of which 17 still survive including (HB16/01/047 and HB16/01/069). As a group they are very probably now a unique survival in the province.