Survey Data
Reg No
31300704
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Scientific, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1840 - 1849
Coordinates
109360, 339349
Date Recorded
31/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Two-arch road bridge over river, dated 184-; extant 1896. Part creeper- or ivy-covered tuck pointed snecked limestone walls centred on tooled limestone ashlar rounded cutwater to pier having domed capping with cut-limestone stringcourses supporting parapets having lichen-covered hammered limestone rounded coping centred on benchmark-inscribed date stone ("184-"). Pair of segmental arches with drag edged tooled limestone ashlar voussoirs. Sited spanning Bellanaminnaun River with unkempt banks to river.
Appraisal
A bridge representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century civil engineering heritage of the rural environs of Ballycastle with the architectural value of the composition, one evoking favourable comparisons with the contemporary New Bridge (184-) nearby (see 31300705), confirmed not only by the "sparrow pecked" sheer limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also by the elegant "sweep" of the arches making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the Bellanaminnaun River: meanwhile, a benchmark remains of additional interest for the connections with cartography and the preparation of maps by the Ordnance Survey (established 1824).