Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Former railway bridge
Clontaghnaglar, Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Bridge
- Date of listing
- 27 May 1980
- Date of delisting
- 27 November 1997
- Date of construction
- 1840 - 1859
- Address
- Former railway bridge, Abbeyview Road, Clontaghnaglar, Crossgar, Downpatrick, Co Down
- Townland
- Clontaghnaglar
- Council
- Newry, Mourne and Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.41163, -5.80398
- Date of survey
- 12 October 2000
- HB reference
- HB18/05/009
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1794 "Sheet 55. (Cary's England, Wales, and Scotland)." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
Single span, largely rubble built, road bridge of 1857-58 built to carry the Abbeyview Road over a stretch of the former Belfast & County Down Railway line. The line was removed in 1950. The bridge is located along the Abbeyview Road, roughly 2 miles NW of Crossgar.
The bridge is mainly constructed in squared fieldstone, with sandstone used as coping to the parapets, voussoirs to the elliptical arch, and as a string course at road level. (There may be another string course at arch springing level, but the presence of thick greenery has obscured much of the lower portion to both sides.)
Historical information
This bridge was constructed in 1857-58 to carry what is now known as the Abbeyview Road over a new stretch of the Belfast & Co Down Railway Company’s line to Ballynahinch. It was probably designed by the BCDR’s chief engineer, Sir John MacNeill, and built by his principal contractor, Patrick Moore. The line closed in 1950.
References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/23/2 OS map, Down sh 23, 1858
Secondary sources
1 W.A. McCutcheon ‘The industrial archaeology of Northern Ireland’ (Belfast HMSO 1980), p.143 etc.
2 Desmond Coakham ‘The Belfast & County Down Railway’ (Midland Publishing Ltd. 1998)
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
Not listed
Criteria for listing: historic interest
Not listed
Evaluation
Single span, largely rubble built, road bridge of 1857-58 built to carry the Ballydyan Road over a stretch of the former Belfast & County Down Railway line. The line was removed in 1950. Bridge is not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.
Nearby in the register
- Session house at Rademon Unitarian meeting houseHouseunder 1 mi
- Rademon Unitarian meeting houseChurchunder 1 mi
- 17 Listooder RoadHouseunder 1 mi
- Hall at Rademon Unitarian meeting houseHallunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.