Former railway bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Disused, rubble-constructed single span bridge of c.1859-60, originally built to carry a road over the Newtownards-Donaghadee stretch of the Belfast & Co Down Railway. The line of the road (actually a narrow country lane) has now been shifted just to the W of the bridge, with the result that that bridge itself serves no function and simply stands on the edge of a field. The structure is situated a few metres S of Cotton Road, c.1.5 miles W of Donaghadee.

The bridge is largely in rock-faced fieldstone rubble with a single elliptical arch. The arch has rock-faced, v-jointed sandstone as voussoirs and quoins, and the intrados is brick lined. To each side of the arch, (on both faces of the bridge), are splayed triangular buttresses. There is a string course at arch springing level and another just above the arch, both in sandstone. There is sandstone coping to the parapet. The E face of the bridge is largely covered in thick plant growth.

Historical information

This bridge was constructed some time between October 1859 and June 1861, as part of the Belfast & Co Down Railway’s new line between Newtownards and Donaghadee. It was probably designed by the BCDR’s chief engineer, Sir John MacNeill and built by his principal contractor, Patrick Moore. The line closed in 1950 and since that time the road itself, (actually a country lane leading to some farm houses), has been redirected slightly to the west and the bridge no longer used.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 OS map, Co Down sh 2, 1858-60

Secondary sources
1 W.A.McCutcheon ‘The industrial archaeology of Northern Ireland’ (Belfast HMSO 1980), pp.142-43
2 Desmond Coakham ‘Belfast & County Down Railway’ (Midland Publishing Ltd, 1998)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Disused, rubble-constructed single span bridge of c.1859-60, originally built to carry a road over the Newtownards-Donaghadee stretch of the Belfast & Co Down Railway. The road was redirected some time after the line closed in 1950 and the bridge now serves no function.