Bann Bridge

A bridge near Coleraine Castle is recorded in 1248, and maps show later timber crossings. One replacement built in 1716 collapsed in 1739; another raised around 1743 still relied on six wooden spans by the 1830s. The county needed a stronger permanent road link across the Bann, with safer approaches and room for people travelling on foot.

County surveyor Stewart Gordon designed the present three-arch masonry bridge, and Coleraine contractor John Lynn built it. The County Londonderry Grand Jury paid £14,650 for the work, completed in 1844. Construction included raising the roads on both banks so that traffic could meet the higher stone crossing on manageable slopes.

The bridge remained the Coleraine area's only road crossing until Sandelford Bridge opened upstream in 1975. During the Second World War, workers placed a hidden chamber inside it for explosives, allowing defenders to destroy the route if enemy forces invaded. The charge was never needed. A separate footbridge opened just downstream in 2001.

Three broad arches of dressed Scottish granite still carry town traffic, with paler sandstone beneath. Carved panels identify Gordon and the county and date the work to 1844. The old crossing continues in daily use beside the newer footbridge, while its stone piers and raised approaches preserve the solution adopted after centuries of less durable bridges.

The bridge tied the two banks of Coleraine together for work, markets and travel and controlled the town's main river movement for more than 130 years. Its succession of predecessors makes this a place of continuity as well as a single fine structure: the community repeatedly rebuilt the same essential connection as materials, money and engineering improved.