Railway Bridge, Seapark Road, Holywood, Bangor, Co Down

Railway Bridge, Seapark Road

This skew single arch bridge carries the double-track Belfast-Bangor railway over Seapark Road in Holywood. Built by the Belfast, Holywood & Bangor Railway in the early 1860s, it was designed by Charles Lanyon, the line's consultant architect, and is typical of rail-over-road bridges along this route.

The bridge has a segmental arch with voussoirs in rusticated, margined and vee-jointed sandstone, matched by similarly detailed quoins. The soffit is of skew-laid brick, rising directly from the abutments without an intermediate string course. The spandrels and dwarf parapets are of roughly-faced, randomly-sized sandstone blocks, with parapets coped in finely-dressed chamfered sandstone. The abutments are of rock-faced blackstone rubble brought to courses and embellished with rusticated, margined and vee-jointed sandstone detailing. Modern two-bar galvanised steel railings run along the top of each parapet. Angled wing walls at each end are of random rubble blackstone brought to courses; the north-east and south-west walls splay outwards to accommodate vehicle waiting places, which have since been flagged over as part of the footpath. All but the south-east wing walls have dressed sandstone block terminal piers. Triangular headroom warning signs over the arch crown on the south elevation indicate 14 feet 6 inches (4.4 metres); identical signs originally stood on the north face but are now missing. Emergency information plaques affixed to the wing walls identify this as bridge number 336.

The Holywood-Bangor section of the Belfast, Holywood & Bangor Railway opened on 19 May 1865, three years after construction began in 1862, delayed by land access difficulties and extensive rock blasting. Although the railway had reached Holywood from Belfast in 1848, this new section was required to extend the line further south. In 1873 the entire line was leased to the Belfast & County Down Railway, which took outright ownership in 1884. The line passed to the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948 and to Northern Ireland Railways in 1968; it is now operated by Translink.

The bridge merits listing for the quality of its workmanship, the use of contrasting materials including blackstone, sandstone and brick, and its embellishment through rock facing, rustication and vee jointing. It is of particular structural interest as a skew bridge with stone voussoirs and brick soffit, and of historical interest as a mid-19th century example of railway engineering. Although originally a single track, the line was eventually doubled; the original abutment width was such that no widening of the bridge itself was necessary.