Bridge, off Ravara Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Road bridge, over a disused railway cutting, to the S of the Ravara Road, just to the SE of the village of Ballygowan.

The bridge (which is set at a slight skew) is in rubble with an elliptical arch and sandstone voussoirs and a brick intrados. Both faces of the bridge are largely covered in greenery which has obscured a sandstone course noted when the bridge was first surveyed in Jan. 1972.

The road is covered in tarmac. The main Ravara Road has been directed slightly to the N, and the stretch of road over this bridge is now used for access to private homes.

Historical information

This bridge was probably constructed 1856-7 to carry the Ravara Road over the new BCDR railway line between Comber and Downpatrick (officially opened in March 1859). The bridge is indicated on the OS map of 1858. With the closing of the railway in 1950 the road itself was straightened, shifting slightly northwards in the process.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60 Down 16.
2 EHS OS map 167-9 (1:2500) 1973.

Secondary sources
1 W.A. McCutcheon ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’ (HMSO 1980), pp.157, 175.
2 Desmond Coakham ‘Belfast & County Down Railway’ (Leicester 1998), p.41.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Rubble and sandstone road bridge over a former railway line, whose sides are now largely covered in greenery.