Road-over-rail bridge, Mackey's Lane, Dromore, Co Down, BT25

Road-over-rail bridge at Mackey's Lane, Dromore

This single-arch stone and brick bridge, built around 1862, carries a minor road over the former Lisburn-Banbridge Railway. The bridge comprises squared random rubble blackstone with rusticated and margined abutment quoins. The arch is of segmental profile and consists of four header courses of brick. The parapets feature margined ends and are coped with roughly-dressed sandstone blocks, chamined and projecting to their outer faces. One end coping stone on the northwest side has been slightly displaced by vehicle impact.

The carriageway is a single lane width, rising to the bridge via an artificial embankment. To the north, the railway track has been infilled so that only the crown of the brick arch ring remains visible. Soil and debris have accumulated beneath the arch, leaving only the southeast wing wall (constructed of random rubble blackstone with sandstone coping) exposed. The railway line survives as a visible earthwork to the south of the bridge. Much of the visible masonry is covered with ivy. The setting is rural, with farm buildings to the north screening the bridge from view.

The bridge lies on the Knockmore Junction to Banbridge section of the Lisburn-Castlewellan line, opened by the Banbridge, Lisburn & Belfast Railway in July 1863. Thomas Jackson, the company's consultant engineer who designed stations at Hillsborough, Dromore and Banbridge, was probably responsible for this bridge's design. Upon opening, the line was operated by the Ulster Railway Company before being amalgamated into the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1876. The line was eventually extended to Castlewellan in 1906 and linked to Newcastle by the Belfast & County Down Railway in the same year. The Banbridge-Castlewellan section closed in 1955, with the remainder of the line closing in 1956.