Road-over-rail bridge, near 17 Upper Quilly Road, Dromore, Co Down, BT25

Road-over-rail Bridge near Upper Quilly Road, Dromore

This single-span metal girder accommodation bridge dates from around 1862 and carried a field access track over the former Lisburn-Banbridge Railway. Although now partially buried and its functional integrity compromised, the bridge survives substantially intact.

The abutments are constructed in quarried random rubble blackstone with rusticated and margined quoins and shallow angled buttresses. The span comprises two horizontal lattice girder trusses, each made up of two cross-braced lattice girders of riveted flat bar and angled metal bar. Lengths of railway line are set transversely between the girders' bottom strings, their ends resting on small cast-iron brackets. Timber pieces positioned over these transoms support longitudinal timber planks which form the deck. The parapets consist of four-bar tubular steel bars and wire strung between metal uprights. The parapet ends continue in quarried random rubble and terminate in out-projecting regularly-coursed blackstone piers embellished with rusticated and margined quoins. The stonework is coped with oversailing chamfered sandstone blocks, and there is also a rusticated and margined blackstone string course around the base of the parapets.

The lattice metal girder span is of particular interest, as few such examples now survive. The bridge is also historically significant due to its association with the Lisburn-Banbridge Railway.

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 railway company's consultant engineer, designed the stations at Hillsborough, Dromore and Banbridge, and was probably responsible for designing this bridge. Upon opening, the line was worked by the Ulster Railway Company before being amalgamated into the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1876. The line reached Castlewellan in 1906 and was linked to Newcastle by the Belfast & County Down Railway in the same year. The Banbridge-Castlewellan section closed in 1955, and the remainder of the line in 1956.

Currently, the deck is heavily overgrown with ivy and blocked at its north end by a low concrete wall. The former field access track at the south end has been completely removed, making the bridge unusable. The line of the track in the cutting immediately east of the bridge has been infilled, though it remains visible to the west. There has also been some dumping of debris underneath the span. The bridge sits in a rural setting adjacent to a farm with outbuildings.