Milestone opposite 123 Castle Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A cast-iron milestone comprising two sides set at an angle with a raking triangular top, 48.5 cms wide, the three faces bearing locations and distances in miles in raised letters, as follows: 'Randalstown 2 miles; Antrim 3 miles; Belfast 20'.

SETTING: It is located in a rural area, at the side of the road, on the footpath, against the basalt rubble boundary wall of the Shane's Castle estate.

Historical information

Precise date of erecting not known but such mileposts in this locality are marked for the first time on the OS map of 1902, and may be taken to probably date from the 1860s.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1902, Co Antrim 49.

Secondary Sources
1. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1980), p 31, and plate 4.2 for a comparable example.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An example of a mid-Victorian cast iron milepost, formerly plentiful but now comparatively rare, there being only three remaining in the Randalstown ward.