Kilroot Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-span stone road-over-river bridge, built c.1850, possibly to designs by Charles Lanyon, aligned north-south and spanning the Kilroot River, Kilroot.

South elevation has rock faced basalt abutments built as snecked squared stonework , spandrels and parapets, projecting piers to either side; stone string course delineating road level; heavy stone coping to parapet. Three round-headed arches (that to centre is larger) with feather-edged rock-faced voussoirs; V-shaped cutwaters.

North elevation as south except that the stonework is generally random rubble including the vousoirs with only the piers and coping in dressed stone. No string course.

Six square pattress plates to each elevation.

Directly to south is a concrete weir. Mature woodland and scrub embankments.

Roof: N/A
Walling: Rock-faced basalt
Windows: N/A
RWG: N/A

Historical information

The bridge appears uncaptioned on the second edition OS map of 1857. It can possibly be attributed to Charles Lanyon, County Surveyor of Antrim from 1836 to1860.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/45/2 – Second Edition OS Map (1857)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A particularly handsome mid- nineteenth-century stone bridge of formal composition, spanning the Kilroot River. The south side is built in stone work of high quality and the north elevation is unusually constructed with simpler detailing. The bridge is a fine example of nineteenth-century engineering. It is complemented by an unspoiled rural setting and is an important landscape feature, representative of concentrated improvements in infrastructure at the time.