Randalstown Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A nine-arched masonry bridge carrying the main Antrim to Randalstown road over the River Main on the eastern approach to Randalstown. The two end arches at the east accommodate a mill race, while the third from that end is dry in normal circumstances, coinciding with a spit of land dividing the mill race from the main river.

Built of random rubble basalt with rough stone voussoirs to segmental arches; of slight hump-backed form, the central arch being slightly higher than the others. Piers on both faces have angled cutwaters to arch springing level. Spandrels and arches inset slightly from the line of abutments and parapets on both faces. Parapets have copings of roughly squared flat blocks; part of parapet on south side damaged, with some copings missing. On the north face, the end arch at the west end has been strengthened in reinforced concrete, while the end arch at the east end has been almost entirely blocked to the apex of the arch in the course of building a reinforced concrete culvert; on the south face near the east end a later buttress of rubble masonry has been formed from a cutwater, and a modern pipe carried through it and the other cutwaters on that face across the length of the bridge; a second pipe is carried parallel with the first on that same side, supported on concrete uprights.
Carriageway laid with tarmac, with a footpath running along the south side.

SETTING: The bridge stands within the built-up area of the town with a very much taller mid-19th century railway viaduct running alongside it at an angle on the south side. The approach road at the east end runs under this viaduct.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known but it is shown on the OS map of 1829; widened in 1816, 1834, and 1864; and improved in the 1930s. It may be taken as being of probable 18th century date. The map of 1829 depicts it with only four supporting piers instead of seven, but the accuracy of recording may be questioned as shortly afterwards, in the 1830s, the Ordnance Survey memoirs described it as "a clumsy old structure and must be of some antiquity as it seems to have been twice widened, though it is in tolerable repair. It measures 193 feet in length and 29 feet in width between the parapets. It is supported by 9 circular-segmental arches of unequal length." It was also described by the same source as "formerly very narrow". The OS map of 1858 depicts it with seven supporting piers.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1829, Co Antrim 43.
2. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 43.
3. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 19: Parishes of County Antrim VI, 1830, 1833, 1835-8 (Belfast, 1993), pp 44, 81.
4. S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Vol II (London, 1837), p 484.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Antrim and Ballymena (Belfast, 1969), p 27.
2. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1980), p 31.
3. M. Barry, Across Deep Waters: Bridges of Ireland (Dublin, 1985), p 45.
4. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim (UAHS, Belfast, 1996), p 277.
5. R.C. Cox and M.H. Gould, Civil Engineering Heritage: Ireland (London, 1998), pp 175-6.
6. IHR 7035.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a bridge of probably 18th century foundation, of traditional and typical type, widened in the 19th century, which retains its original character despite later alterations and additions ; it enjoys a largely unspoiled setting and together with the adjacent railway viaduct forms an interesting group.