Drumahaman Bridge, Drumavoley/Drumahaman Tls, Ballycastle, Co.Antrim

A later 18th C four-arch masonry road bridge over the Glenshesk River just above its confluence with the Carey River on the SE outskirts of Ballycastle. The bridge is built in squared rubble blackstone. Only three arches span the river, the fourth one on the left (E) bank being dry in normal circumstances. The arches are all of the same size and have dressed sandstone voussoirs. There are cutwaters to both ends of the piers, rising to arch spring level. The parapets and approach walls are slightly advanced beyond the faces of the arches. The parapets were originally coped with chamfered and sloped sandstone blocks, but these now survive only at the W end of the upstream parapet, the rest having been replaced in mass concrete (of identical profile). The parapets on the E approach walls step down in line with the descending road. The bed of the river is now concreted (it was probably paved originally) and there is a small vertical fall just beyond its downstream face to slow up the water and minimise scouring. At the NW end of the bridge is a stepped concrete outfall from a drain. A concrete buttress has also been built on to the face of the E approach wall on its N side. Setting: The bridge crosses the flood plain of the Glenshesk River just before its confluence with the Carey River which flows in from E. There is a golf course on the E bank, now split by the main road. The steeper W bank is wooded to the SW of the bridge and there is a house and garden just beyond its NW end.