BRIDGE, Main Street, WATERFOOT, Ballymena, CO.ANTRIM

A well-proportioned double-span stone road bridge of late 18th-century date, built over the Glenariff River at the north-west end of Waterfoot. The bridge is constructed of random rubble basalt with two equi-sized segmental arches whose voussoirs are roughly dressed in basalt. Angled cutwaters rise to arch spring level at both ends of the pier. The inside faces of both parapets are finished with randomly-sized squared basalt rubble.

Originally, the parapets were topped with dressed sandstone coping stones. The upstream parapet retains much of this original coping, but the downstream parapet has had its coping replaced with concrete. A metal pipe has been added across the downstream (north-east) face of the bridge, set into concrete on top of the cutwater. A second pipe is embedded in the road surface along the inside face of the downstream parapet.

According to the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir, the bridge measured 45 feet long and 24 feet wide and was described as being "in but middling order" at that time. It stands on the line of the old Coast Road, much of which was superseded by the present Antrim Coast Road, built in the 1830s. The bridge appears on all Ordnance Survey map editions from 1832 onwards, though uncaptioned.

The bridge is situated at the north-west end of Main Street, immediately south-east of the T-junction with the Coast Road. A small public amenity area occupies the upstream section of the right (south-east) bank, with a house and garden immediately downstream on the same bank. The left bank comprises undeveloped rough open ground. A modern metal girder pedestrian footbridge stands a short distance upstream. The bridge enjoys a fine setting at the entrance to Cushendall, though its essential character is somewhat compromised by the addition of the pipe on its downstream face and replacement of the downstream coping stones.