Dunadry Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A slightly skewed three-span road-over-river stone bridge, built 1832, and carrying the Belfast Road (A6) over Six Mile Water. There is coursed black stone to piers, spandrels, and parapet with chamfered stringcourse to carriageway-level. The stone is dressed to the segmental arches voussoirs, and to the parapet coping, and there are V-shaped cutwaters to both north and south pier elevations. The bridge has woodland wetlands to the south embankments and to the northeast, and there is modern housing to the northwest.

Historical information

The OS memoirs record that Dunadry Bridge, is ‘a plain but handsome skew bridge of 3 circular-segment arches’, built in 1832 (p.115). The bridge is shown on the 1834 OS maps and subsequent editions.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/50/1, OS Map, First Edition, 1834, no.50.
2. PRONI OS/6/1/50/2, OS Map, Second Edition, 1857, no.50.
3. PRONI OS/6/1/50/3, OS Map, Third Edition, 1902, no.50.
4. PRONI OS/6/1/50/4, OS Map, Fourth Edition, 1921, no.50.

Secondary Sources

1. McCutcheon, William Alan. The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1983), 31.
2. Girvan, W. D. & Rowan, R. J. “Ulster Architectural Heritage Society Second List of Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in West Antrim, Within the Designated Area of the Antrim and Ballymena Development Commission.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
3. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co Antrim XII 1833, 1835, 1838 (Templepatrick & District) Vol 35.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
F. Structural System
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A dignified nineteenth-century stone bridge built of fine materials and subtly ornamented carrying a major roadway. It is similar in appearance to the railway bridge downstream, except that that bridge has brick soffits and this one has rubble stone. The bridge depicted in the 1834 OS map possibly had five shorter spans and was replaced with this three-span construction, reflecting the engineering advancements of the nineteenth century.