Killeen Bridge, Killeen, Newry, Co Armagh

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Killeen Bridge carries the main Newry - Dundalk road over the double track Belfast-Dublin railway. It comprises a highly skewed single semi-elliptical span. The abutments are of random rubble and the remainder of granodiorite blocks, all quarry-faced and irregularly coursed except for the arch soffit which is regularly laid at an angle appropriate to the skew. It is embellished with tooled edges to the abutments, narrow vee-jointed rock-faced voussoirs (also with a tooled edge) which are stepped into the spandrel blocks, a finely dressed string course just above the crown, and finely dressed and chamfered parapet copings. The outer faces of the parapets are finely dressed and project slightly beyond those of the spandrels. Both outside faces carry a datestone at centre which reads '1851'. The parapets end in slightly out-projecting terminal piers. This is one of several bridges across a 3km long rock-cut excavation bringing the line up from the Newry direction between Cloghoge and Killeen.

Historical information

Erected in 1851 by the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway Co to designs by its chief engineer Sir John Macneill; its construction was undertaken by William Dargan. With the completion of the Craigmore Viaduct in 1852, the line between Belfast and Dublin became fully operational.

SOURCE
1. WA McCutcheon (1980), The industrial archaeology of Northern Ireland, (Belfast: HMSO).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This bridge is of architectural interest on account of its design and high standard of execution. Technically it is also of interest on account of its pronounced skew and the use of stone rather than brick for the soffit. As such, it represents the climax of mid 19th C railway bridge design, before the advent of the use of brick and metal. It has historical associations with Sir John Macneill and William Dargan ('father' of Irish railways). It is similar in style to other rail-related bridges hereabouts, all of which form a coherent group associated with the rock-cut excavation, a substantial civil engineering work in its own right.