Clontylew Bridge, Clontylew Road, Portadown, Co Armagh BT62 1RE

Clontylew Bridge is a single-span masonry arch road bridge constructed between 1855 and 1858 to carry Clontylew Road over the former Portadown to Dungannon railway line. It was designed and built by William Dargan, the island's foremost railway engineer, as part of the Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Junction Railway. The bridge is built throughout of split stone, with a single segmental arch dressed in split-stone voussoirs and raised parapets coped with larger slabs laid flat, some tied with inset metal cleats. Its architectural style, elegant proportions, and sandstone embellishment are typical of mid-1800s railway engineering and represent a fine example from the period.

The road runs at an angle to the line of the former railway, causing the approach parapets to the bridge to angle in opposite directions, forming a chicane in plan. The bridge is slightly battered on both faces, and a service pipe is carried along the west-facing side. The squared rubble basalt construction and overall design exemplify the quality of Dargan's railway works.

The railway line opened on Easter Monday, 5 April 1858, with the route to Omagh completed in 1861. The bridge is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1859. In 1860 the line was leased to the Ulster Railway, becoming part of the Great Northern Railway in 1876. Between 1899 and 1902, the stretch between Portadown and Annaghmore was doubled in track width, though Clontylew Bridge itself spanned a single track throughout most of its operational life. The line was reduced to single track again in 1959 and closed by the Ulster Transport Authority in February 1965.

The bridge occupies an elegant rural setting on a north-south axis on Clontylew Road, approached from the north by an attractive tree-lined road. To the east is a steep wooded embankment, while to the west the embankment tapers into pastoral fields descending gently towards a lake. The parapets provide a visual terminus on the tree-lined road and form an elegant set piece in the landscape when viewed from the west. The bridge is of local historical interest as a tangible reminder of the former railway and as a documented work by the renowned engineer William Dargan, with an attested date of erection.