Gillhall (Gill Hall) Bridge, Dromore, Co Down

Gillhall Bridge is a rare and elegant late 17th century four-arch bridge spanning the River Lagan, almost certainly built in the 1670s as part of the formal demesne layout associated with the now-lost Gill Hall mansion. It is one of a select number of surviving 17th century bridges in Ulster and an excellent example of its type — a fine piece of vernacular engineering, a strong landscape feature, and an important surviving relic of a major formal demesne.

CONSTRUCTION AND FORM

The bridge is built in random rubble composed mostly of Silurian stone with some sandstone. Its four semicircular arches are arranged so that the two central arches — equal in size — carry the River Lagan under normal conditions, while the two smaller arches at each end, which are lower and narrower, were designed to handle floodwater from the adjacent flood plain and are ordinarily dry. One of these smaller arches, on the north side, is partly infilled, with a blocking wall built into the face of the west side; both end arches are currently used as cattle shelters.

Rather than having a humped profile, the carriageway rises with a slight upward slope from south to north, and there is a short causeway approach to the south. The bridge measures approximately 100 feet in length and 14 feet 6 inches in width between the parapets, which are themselves 18 inches wide. There is no decorative embellishment anywhere on the structure.

CUTWATERS AND PEDESTRIAN REFUGES

A particularly notable feature — and one that is very rare in Ulster — is that the piers are fitted with angled cutwaters, three on each side of the bridge, which continue upward to full parapet height, creating three pedestrian refuges on each side. The parapets are coped with irregular Silurian stonework, though portions have been replaced in the more recent past with dressed granite, sandstone, and concrete flags.

CONDITION AND LATER ALTERATIONS

The bridge has suffered a number of interventions and areas of deterioration. At some point in the recent past, possibly during the 1970s, the face of the bridge was given a skim of cement plaster with the stone jointing accentuated. The piers of the main arches have been faced with concrete, though much of this has since fallen away and the mortar jointing has eroded. The soffit of the south arch is badly cracked and would require tie rods to stabilise it. Masonry buttresses at the south-east and north-west ends help counteract the outward bulge of the approach walls. The top of the downstream right-bank pedestrian refuge has fallen away, and there is considerable ivy growth over part of the bridge face.

SETTING AND DEMESNE CONTEXT

The bridge stands at the centre of what was once a major late 17th century formal demesne layout and sits adjacent to the site of the Gill Hall mansion, which stood a short distance to the north-west. To the south of the bridge, aligned directly upon it, is a long straight half-mile avenue — still lined predominantly with common lime and some oak — which formerly led to the house and remains a notable surviving feature in its own right. Adjacent to the bridge on the north-west side are the remains of a wall largely composed of early brick, revetting the river bank and possibly forming part of a garden terrace. The area around the bridge on both sides is now used as farmyard, with a modern farm building just to the south-west, though many trees remain and the setting is still attractive. The bridge is shown crossing the river on Harris's 1743 Map of County Down and appears on the 1834 Ordnance Survey six-inch map (sheet 20) and subsequent editions.

GILL HALL HOUSE AND ITS HISTORY

The bridge was directly associated with Gill Hall, described as one of Ireland's most distinguished late 17th and early 18th century country houses. The original house was a three-storey, seven-bay building erected in the 1670s by John Magill, whose family had acquired the land under the Act of Settlement as a reward for supporting Cromwell in the 1650s. In his will of 1677, John Magill left the house to his heir and grandson, Sir John, the first Baronet. After Sir John's death in 1699 the house passed to his sister's son, John Hawkins of Rathfriland, who assumed the name Magill.

It was most likely this John Hawkins-Magill who engaged the celebrated architect Richard Castle to enlarge the house around 1736, at a time when Castle was also working on the Newry Canal. Castle's additions included shallow full-height curved bays on each side of the front elevation, each storey featuring rusticated Venetian windows. The entrance was through a magnificent doorway set under a segmental arch with carved stone dolphins in the spandrels. Internally, the house retained its original 1670s wainscot panelling and a superb wooden staircase notable for its barley-sugar banisters.

The house became famous as reputedly one of the most haunted in Ireland. In October 1693, Sir John Magill's sister-in-law, Nicola, Lady Beresford, while staying there, claimed to have received a visitation from the ghost of John Power, Lord Tyrone, who appeared — as he had promised — to report on his own death and confirm the existence of God (his report being in the affirmative). He also accurately foretold that Lady Beresford would die in her 47th year. When the 5th Earl of Clanwilliam — whose forebear had married the Hawkins-Magill heiress Theodosia in 1774 — brought his bride to Gill Hall in 1909, she found the hauntings intolerable and the house was abandoned in favour of Montalto, Ballynahinch, which the earl had purchased in 1910.

By 1964 the house was in a poor state. The Irish Georgian Society issued an appeal for repair work and undertook renovation of the roof and other elements in the spring and summer of 1966 and 1967 under Desmond Hodges. In 1968 the house was bought as an investment by a Scottish woman, and in 1969 it was destroyed by fire. The ruin was subsequently demolished by the army. Only the stable block, built by Richard Castle in the 1730s, survived alongside the bridge. The lands at Gill Hall were sold by private treaty in March 1997.

A comparable bridge of similar date with angled cutwaters extending to form pedestrian refuges at parapet level can be found at Custer in Clare (Tandragee).