bridge

Single-arch railway bridge, built c.1858, carrying Portadown & Cavan Branch of Great Northern Railway over road. Limestone walls, rock-faced rusticated to splayed abutments, spandrel walls and parapets, with tooled coping to parapets and abutments and tooled plat-bands at impost level. Projecting rock-faced buttresses flanking arch to each elevation. Segmental arch with rock-faced voussoirs.

The Armagh-Monaghan branch of the Great Northern Railway opened on the 25th May 1858 and closed in 1958, and throughout its century of use it was one of the major methods of transport for rural areas it passed through, maintaining a strong social and economic significance. This bridge is a physical reminder of the extent of the railway network at the turn of the century. The stonework in this piece of railway architecture is indicative of the quality and craftsmanship in stone-working which was prevalent in the closing decades of the nineteenth century: the large buttresses and heavy rustication provide an impression of strength and power, while the elegantly splayed abutment walls are a statement of aesthetic interest in the landscape.