Railway Bridge, Straidballymorris, Dunadry, Co Antrim

This substantial four-span railway bridge, constructed approximately 1850, carries the railway line between Templepatrick and Antrim over both the Six Mile Water and Dunadry Road, south of Belfast Road. The bridge dates to a period of railway expansion in Northern Ireland and remains in use and excellent condition, retaining its ornate granite detailing. Its unusual configuration accommodates both the road, the railway, and the river.

The bridge is built from squared and snecked rock-faced blackstone, with rusticated granite quoins and coping, and a banded string course at carriageway level, with voussoirs to the segmental headed archways. The arch soffits are constructed of brick, with a banded string course at their base. The three western arches carry the railway over the water, springing from blackstone piers featuring V-shaped granite cutwaters with offset weathering. The eastern archway, of a smaller span and springing from a higher level, carries the railway over Dunadry Road and is flanked by projecting stone piers. The eastern archway is abutted to the north and south by coursed rubble walling with stone coping, to the north-east by brick walling and to the south-east by random rubble walling.

The bridge appears on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map of the area. According to McCutcheon, the bridge was built during the construction of the Belfast-Ballymena railway line between 1845 and 1848. The railway played a significant role in the development of industry, agriculture, and tourism in Northern Ireland, and by 1860 the Belfast-Ballymena Railway had become the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. The bridge is of industrial archaeological interest due to its style, proportion, ornamentation, plan form, structural system, and setting, along with its local historical significance and relative rarity.