Aughlish Bridge, Glenedra Road, Aughlish, Feeny, Co Londonderry

Aughlish Bridge is a robust and impressive late 19th-century stone bridge of three arches, carrying the Glenedra Road over the Sruhan Meenard burn where it forms a deep glen. Built in 1893, it is a notable example of work by County Surveyor A.C. Adair, whose name appears on a plaque on the structure.

The bridge is almost viaduct-like in appearance, spanning a gorge-like section of the burn. The central arch has a span of 9 metres and carries the watercourse, while the two side arches of 6 metres span straddle the banks on either side, which rise some 2 metres above the riverbed. The parapet extends 54 metres in length with a carriageway of 6½ metres width between. The supporting walls of all three arches rise approximately 8 metres to the springing line. These walls are slightly battered on both sides, and beyond the arches, continuous buttressing is formed, creating a visual impression of strength.

The masonry comprises rockfaced, roughly squared random rubble with large rockfaced quoins featuring tooled margins, each approximately 400 millimetres high. The arch voussoirs are also rockfaced with tooled margins and are laid without a keystone. The soffits of the arches are built in yellow brick in stretcher bond, with circular drainage holes pierced through them. The ashlar face of the voussoir soffits is tooled to the brickwork, with 4 courses to each voussoir. The coping stones are large and robust, slightly overhanging on the carriageway side and rounded down at each end. The stonework features strap pointing. A distinctive feature of the bridge is the absence of concrete aprons to the supports or concrete riverbed bottoming, allowing the natural riverbed to contrast with the robust bridge construction.

The present bridge replaced an earlier structure. The Glenedra Road itself was constructed in the early 19th century, with John McCloskey noting in 1821 that "a very useful new road has been opened from Feeny to Ballynascreen." The road, leaving the Dungiven Road at Feeny and passing south-east through Glenedra towards Draperstown in Ballynascreen, was described in the Ordnance Survey memoirs as "a great improvement on the former one." The earlier bridge crossed the burn further downstream. Reverend Professor Witherow recalls in his autobiography seeing the bridge at Aughlish in 1830, writing: "My father would often carry me on his shoulders over the new bridge at Aughlish."