Dry Arch And Walls Ballintoy Road Carrowreagh Tl, Moss-Side, Armoy, Co.Antrim

A mid-19th century masonry arch bridge carrying a minor road over the main Ballycastle-Coleraine road, built in the 1840s or 1850s and probably designed by Charles Lanyon, County Surveyor for County Antrim from 1836 to 1860. The bridge was financed by the County Antrim Grand Jury under the presentment system of road and bridge construction.

The bridge is constructed of squared random rubble basalt, embellished with dressed sandstone quoins, arch voussoirs, and string courses. The arch is of segmental profile with a squared rubble basalt soffit. The parapets are coped with sandstone slabs and have out-projecting terminal piers. Modern height warning triangles are affixed to both faces of the crown. The caps of the piers at the south end have been replaced with concrete, but those at the north end retain their original sandstone coping.

The bridge functions as an early example of a grade-separated junction, carrying the minor road between Ballintoy and Ballymoney or Armoy over the main road. The Ballycastle-Coleraine road has been excavated beneath the arch, with the east and west approaches embanked on both sides and held back by low rubble basalt retaining walls. The bridge's restricted headroom requires high-sided vehicles to pass under the middle and give way to oncoming traffic. Slip roads at the east and west ends of the excavated section lead from the main road up to the minor road, meeting it at the south side of the bridge.

The bridge is virtually unaltered since its construction and is of considerable historical interest as a very early example of a grade-separated junction, comparable with the 1830s 'Cut' at Banbridge. The style, proportion and ornamentation are typical of mid-19th century bridges of this type. The bridge sits in an entirely rural setting, surrounded by fields on all sides, which plays a key part in its architectural appreciation. The bridge appears on Ordnance Survey maps from 1857 onwards, though neither the bridge nor the present line of the main road are shown on the 1832 map, when the latter ran north of its present alignment and met the minor road at a crossroads.