Craigacat Bridge, Loughareema Road, Cushendall, Ballymena, Co. Antrim

Craigacat Bridge is a small but finely crafted skew-arched masonry road bridge built in 1834, spanning a minor stream on the Cushendall to Ballycastle road in open moorland near Loughareema Road, Cushendall.

The bridge is constructed in random rubble mica schist, with sandstone dressings that provide striking visual contrast. The abutment quoins are of rusticated and margined sandstone blocks. A shallow buttress projects from the downstream left-bank side, detailed with similar quoins. The arch itself is semicircular in profile with vee-jointed voussoirs matching the quoining detail. The arch soffit has been gunited. A moulded sandstone string course runs across each face above the arch crown. The parapet copings are of roughly-hewn schist with larger blocks positioned at each end. A sandstone datestone is set into the road face of the upstream (northeast) parapet, reading "Craigacat / 1834". The bridge approaches are formed by rubble masonry walls, now coped with concrete. The bridge has been repointed in sand and cement mortar. The shallow valley created by the stream has been embanked to create a level road crossing.

Craigacat Bridge was constructed as part of the Antrim Coast Road, which runs between Larne and Ballycastle and represented the largest civil engineering project in Ireland at the time. The road was built between 1832 and 1842 under the direction of Scottish engineer William Bald for the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland. An 1832 Ordnance Survey map shows this line marked as a dotted road captioned "new road in progress 1833", though the section containing this bridge was not fully completed until autumn 1835. The bridge has been explicitly named on Ordnance Survey maps from 1857 onwards.

The bridge's original fabric survives largely intact. It has group value with Glendun Viaduct and the neighbouring bridges along this route: Corratavey Bridge, Altheela Bridge, Bush Burn Bridge, and Altadreen Bridge. Beyond its architectural merit, the bridge has significant historical interest as a component of the Antrim Coast Road, which replaced two steeper routes and substantially improved social and economic connectivity throughout the area. It is of particular local interest and industrial archaeological significance.