Kilmakee Railway Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An arched stone bridge carries the main Belfast-Dublin railway over a now-defunct field accommodation a short distance east of Rathmoyne House, on the west wide of the Lisburn Road.

The bridge is constructed entirely of ashlar Triassic sandstone except for its abutments and wing walls. The abutments are of squared random blackstone brought to courses. The arch is of semicircular profile and has vee-jointed voussoirs, the outer edges of which are curved with the arch. The soffit is also of ashlar sandstone. Tapered buttresses run up each side of the arch. A string course runs over the crown and continue around the tops of the buttresses. Above the string course is a parapet coped with sandstone and terminating in advanced rectangular piers, also capped with sandstone. The parapet is now surmounted by a single-bar galvanised metal handrail. There are curved wing walls at each end, all of squared random blackstone brought to courses and coped with concrete blocks (doubtless a replacement of the original sandstone copings).

The SE elevation is now partly buried under landfill (used to close the road), whilst the NW face is heavily overgrown

Historical information

The railway between Belfast and Lisburn was opened by the Ulster Railway Company in 1839. It has the distinction of being the first railway in Ulster and the second in Ireland (after the Dublin-Kingstown railway, opened in 1834). The line was extended to Armagh in 1848, and to Dublin (via Portadown) in 1852.
The line was constructed by William Dargan (‘father’ of Irish railways) under the direction of John Godwin (who went on to become Professor of Engineering at Queen’s College, Belfast). The consultants to the Ulster Railway Co were William Bald (who built the Antrim Coast Road) and Thomas Jackson Woodhouse, Co Antrim’s first County Surveyor.
Originally this line was a single track at 6ft 2in gauge. However, with the change to a 5ft 3in gauge throughout Ireland in 1846, it was re-laid as two lines, both to the new gauge. Fortunately, the doubling of the track had been allowed for in the depths of all the bridges along it, including this one.
In 1876, the Ulster Railway Company amalgamated with various other railway enterprises to form the Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland). The Ulster Transport Authority took over operations in 1958, and the Northern Ireland Railway Co in 1968. Translink is now responsible for the line’s operation.
The accommodation track was closed when the DeLorean car factory was built on the west side of the railway line.

References - Secondary sources:
1. McCutcheon, W.A. The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, pp 104-105, 158 (Belfast: HMSO, 1980)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The high quality of the bridge’s ashlar stonework reflects the solidity and ‘no expense spared’ image with which the Ulster Railway Company wished to project itself to the public. This is underscored by the fact that this particular example is a mere accommodation bridge, away from general public view. It is also of historical interest in being one of the earliest railway bridges in Ulster. It has group value with other railway bridges on this line.