Bridge, Clandeboye Estate, Clandeboye, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 1RN

Bridge at Clandeboye Estate

This early 19th century bridge spans Maureen's Water just south-east of Clandeboye House within the Clandeboye Estate near Bangor, County Down. Built between 1800 and 1819, probably by James Blackwood, 2nd Baron Dufferin (1755-1836) at the same time as the construction of Clandeboye House (then known as Ballyleidy House), the bridge is notable for its refined architectural treatment in contrast to the plainer random rubble road bridges typical of the period.

The bridge is constructed throughout of random and squared rubble blackstone. It carries an unsurfaced road over the water as a single-arch structure with a semi-elliptical arch that rises directly from the stream bed, featuring thin split stone voussoirs. The parapets are snecked with two parallel rows of slate beneath the parapet that mimic a string course. The parapets are coped with dressed granite blocks with shallow pitched tops, and the parapet ends curve outwards to terminate in square granite piers surmounted by pyramidal caps. This careful dressing of the rubble stonework, the use of snecking and slate string courses, and the granite parapet copings and piers set the bridge apart stylistically from contemporary plainer examples. A more recent vertical concrete weir has been constructed underneath the arch.

The bridge appears on the 1834 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, confirming its existence prior to the extensive rebuilding and landscaping programme carried out by Frederick Blackwood, 5th Baron Dufferin and 1st Marquis of Dufferin & Ava (1826-1902) in the 1850s. These works included the construction of the present network of estate roads and the realignment of the carriageway over this bridge. Originally the road ran from south to north, crossing the bridge and proceeding directly to the house; it was realigned to run west along the south bank of Maureen's Water, cross the bridge, and then turn west again, thus avoiding the remodelled house.

The bridge holds group value with Clandeboye House and other estate buildings and structures. Its setting within the landscaped grounds of the estate is of architectural and historical interest, and it is of significance as an early 19th century demesne bridge of industrial archaeological interest.