Tow Bridge, Mary Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim is a Grade B2 listed building in the Causeway Coast and Glens local planning authority area, Northern Ireland. First listed on 1 March 2005.
Tow Bridge, Mary Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim
- WRENN ID
- lone-plinth-myrtle
- Grade
- B2
- Local Planning Authority
- Causeway Coast and Glens
- Constituency
- North Antrim MP: Jim Allister (TUV)
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Date first listed
- 1 March 2005
- Irish grid reference
- D 122 409
- Coordinates
- 55.20285, -6.23721
- Source
- NI Environment Agency listing
Description
The Tow Bridge is an 18th-century single-arch bridge situated on Mary Street in Ballycastle, County Antrim. It carries Mary Street over the Tow River and complements the pleasant promenade along the Margy river, exhibiting an unusual design.
The bridge features a single, almost semi-circular arch spanning 4½ metres, rising from low walls constructed of random rubble and lacking breakwaters. The riverbanks meet the rising walls of the bridge arch. The arch itself is built of robust pink sandstone voissoirs, and the spandrels on either side are slightly recessed, with a horizontal stringcourse at the top voissoir height creating a frame around the arch. The abutments, built of a mixture of basalt and sandstone in random rubble, extend significantly beyond the arch on the western side, connecting to the former harbour wall. The soffit of the vault is also constructed of random rubble.
While the precise date of construction is unknown, the bridge appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and is stylistically dated to the mid-19th century based on the dressed stone voissoirs of the arch. It is named on the Ordnance Survey map of 1904. An earlier crossing existed at this location, shown on an Ordnance Survey map of 1832, although not specifically mentioned in the OS Memoirs.
The bridge is considered to be of industrial archaeological interest and is located within a conservation area. It holds local historical interest and is owned by central government. The bridge’s architectural merits lie in its style, proportion, ornamentation, and structural system.
Local climate
Tow Bridge, Mary Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,340 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 96% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 97% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 1 freeze-thaw cycle a year, fewer than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 1 follows at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- No flood data for this area
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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