County Boundary Stone, 264 Loughan Road, Colebreene, Coleraine, BT52 1UD

County Boundary Stone, Loughan Road

This is a small cast concrete boundary marker, approximately 300 by 600 by 150 millimetres, positioned in the grass verge on the east side of Loughan Road, seven kilometres south-east of Coleraine and six kilometres west-north-west of Ballymoney. The marker stands upright in a rural location against a dense hedge.

The front face bears lettering approximately 25 to 35 millimetres high, cast and stamped into the concrete surface. The inscription reads "COUNTY BOUNDARY ANTRIM DERRY", with the horizontal words "ANTRIM" and "DERRY" interlaced with the vertical word "Boundary" using the letters "A" and "Y" as shared characters. The marker is lightly weathered. Damage is evident: the cast surface is exposed at the top, and the bottom left of the front face is damaged, with the letter "D" from "DERRY" missing.

This stone is one of six similar concrete boundary markers set along rural roadsides in the area north and west of Ballymoney and east and south-east of Coleraine, Portstewart and Portrush. All mark the land boundary between the counties of Antrim and Londonderry, particularly at points where the boundary changes direction. Their precise date is uncertain, but the concrete construction and the styling of the inscription suggest they date from the very late 19th or early 20th century. They may be associated with the introduction of County Councils following the Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1898. Their origins appear to have been obscure by 1940, when a photograph of a similar stone appeared in the Belfast Telegraph captioned "A curious county boundary stone". This particular example was first marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1950. At least one other stone, formerly located along Newbridge Road to the east, was removed around 2020. Despite their small size and simple detailing, these markers are of considerable local and historical importance as unusual and rare boundary demarcations.