Dunmore Bridge, Shane's Castle Park, Antrim, Co Antrim

Dunmore Bridge is a well-proportioned late Georgian masonry bridge of robust construction, built in 1801 to carry an estate road over the River Main within Shane's Castle Park. It bears the date of construction inscribed on the top voussoir of the central arch on each face.

The bridge is constructed of basalt rubble with dressed sandstone voussoirs to the segmental arches. It is of triple-arched hump-backed form, with side arches of reduced height. A projecting stringcourse of dressed stone runs at carriageway level. The piers on both faces have triangular cutwaters of dressed stone.

The parapets feature squared basalt rubble to the inner faces with later ribbon pointing, and copings of rhyolite splayed to both sides on top. The parapets formerly carried iron railings, now removed, with sockets filled with cement. At each end, the parapets terminate in square piers of squared basalt in irregular courses with splayed rhyolite caps.

Wing walls extend beyond the bridge at both ends. The west wing walls are pierced by three flood arches with rough stone voussoirs, which are normally dry. The wing wall parapets are of basalt rubble with later ribbon pointing and concrete copings of saddleback form, terminating in short square piers of roughly squared basalt rubble with concrete caps.

Later buttresses of battered form in roughly squared basalt rubble have been added to both the bridge and wing walls at the east end: one to both the north and south wing walls, and two to the north face of the bridge or its abutment. The carriageway is rough tarmac with grass verges to both bridge and approaches.

The bridge was built by the O'Neill family of Shane's Castle. Early Ordnance Survey maps show some variation in recording: the 1829 and 1832 maps depict a five-span bridge, though the accuracy of this recording is questionable, while the 1858 map shows it as triple-span. The original iron railings on the parapets were removed in the 1990s.

The bridge stands in a very rural setting within the country-house demesne, with banks thickly overgrown and difficult of access except on the south side at the west end. A modern reinforced concrete bridge carrying the M2 motorway stands very close by on the north side and is clearly visible from the bridge. The bridge has group value with other listed buildings on the estate.