Bridge over railway

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single arched masonry skew bridge carrying a minor road over a railway line, built of basalt rubble, with a segmental archway of brick. Archway constructed of four courses of brick headers in same plane as spandrels. Some repointing to spandrels and parapets on both faces of bridge, in light toned mortar. Vaulting of brickwork laid in diagonal courses. Parapet coping of very roughly hewn greystone. Carriageway hump-backed. Splayed retaining walls to each side of abutments with raking copings.

SETTING: The bridge stands in a very rural area, in the midst of agricultural land, with trees and bushes adjacent.

Historical information

Built to carry a minor road over the Dublin and Antrim Junction Railway, a branch line of the Great Northern Railway; date of construction uncertain, but it appears on the OS map of 1857.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 55.
Secondary Sources
1. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1980), p 110 (but states that the branch line from Knockmore Junction to Antrim was constructed between 1864 and 1871 which is after it appears on the OS map of 1857).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is an example of early Victorian bridge engineering in stone and brick, of generally unspoiled appearance, but is otherwise not of any special or unusual interest.