Coleraine Harbour, 4-6 Riversdale Road, Coleraine, Co Londonderry, BT52 1XA

Coleraine Harbour is a working and partially disused harbour complex on the right bank of the River Bann, with a history of continuous development stretching back into the early 19th century. Although the harbour underwent many phases of construction, alteration and expansion over two centuries, the earliest surviving fabric dates only from the 1930s. The later 20th-century structures are considered to be of limited architectural or historical interest. The complex is of industrial archaeological interest overall. What follows is a description of each of its constituent parts, running from north to south.

RIVERSIDE QUAY AND TRANSIT SHEDS (Component 1)

Riversdale Quay, built by the Coleraine Harbour Commissioners in 1985–86, is a 55-metre-long reinforced-concrete deck on concrete piles, projecting into the river at the northern end of the harbour complex. It has vertical timber fenders and a horizontal rubbing strake along its face, with cast-metal bollards along the edge. The riverbank beneath and behind the quay is formed by a vertical concrete wall. The quay is served by a crawler crane and a 20-ton boat trailer used to move yachts and cruisers to an adjoining boat park. Traces of the track on which a former Scotch derrick crane ran are still visible along the quay side of the sheds; this crane was scrapped around 2005 and replaced by the present crawler jib crane. Behind the quay stand four large transit sheds, also built in 1985–86. All are single-storey buildings with profiled metal roofs and wall cladding over steel frames on concrete-block base walls, with large metal roller shutter doors.

HARBOUR OFFICE (Component 2)

The harbour office sits at the entrance to the modern harbour and was built in the 1990s as a supposedly temporary replacement for the previous office, which was demolished to make way for the Dunnes Stores development. It has become permanent despite its provisional character. It is a single-storey Portacabin-type building with a shallow pitched profiled-metal roof, prefabricated glass-fibre walls over a brick base, and casement windows.

FORMER COLERAINE–LONDONDERRY RAILWAY (Component 3)

No traces of the former mainline railway or its bridge survive at this location. The original railway between Coleraine and Londonderry crossed the River Bann just downstream of the original harbour on a lattice truss bridge opened in 1860, which included a pivoting middle section to allow boats to pass. When the railway was realigned and the present Bann Railway Bridge further downstream was opened in 1924, this earlier bridge was abandoned and subsequently dismantled. The former line at the harbour end has since been covered over by a boat storage hardstand. The defunct Oil Jetty on the opposite bank marks the position of the far end of the former bridge.

BROOK CULVERT (Component 4)

The Brook, also known as the Lodge Burn, flows through Anderson Park and is culverted under the Coleraine Harbour Commissioners' premises before discharging into the River Bann through two reinforced-concrete box culverts. The Brook originally supplied a 16th-century Manorial Mill on the west side of what is now Railway Street, and originally discharged into the Bann just downstream from Coleraine Bridge. It was realigned along its present course when the quay was extended by the Harbour Commissioners in the 1880s, and the section nearest the river was culverted under the quay in the later 1900s.

SLIPWAY (Component 5)

A wide concrete slipway with piled sheet-steel sides projects into the tideway. Along its upstream side there are concrete steps and a vertical metal ladder down to the water. The slipway was constructed by the Commissioners in 2011 as part of their new marina.

PONTOONS (Component 6)

Two pontoons are located adjacent to the former Potato Quay, both installed by the Commissioners in 2011 as part of the marina. The first runs along the front face of the quay and consists of a five-unit fibre-concrete pontoon that slides up and down on galvanised steel rails fixed to timber fenders on the front of the quay. Just downstream from it is an identical pontoon, also running parallel with the bank. This second pontoon is secured by three cylindrical steel piles and is accessed by a galvanised steel truss gangway hinged at its upper end. The first pontoon is accessed from this second one.

POTATO QUAY AND TRANSIT SHEDS (Component 7)

This 40-metre-long quay, now disused, was built by the Commissioners in 1953–54 primarily for the export of potatoes, and projects from the right bank. Its reinforced-concrete deck rests on concrete beams projecting at right angles from the bank, each beam supported on three concrete piles. Timber fenders run along the outside faces of the quay, and cast-metal bollards line its edge. The bank beneath the back of the quay is pitched with quarried stones. Behind the quay are two conjoined transit sheds, now derelict, with a pitched steel truss-framed roof from which the cladding has been removed, concrete walls, and large openings in the west gables.

BANNSIDE WHARF (Component 8)

This quay extends downstream for approximately 270 metres from the Millennium Bridge to beyond Dunnes Stores and represents the most complex element of the harbour, having undergone at least eleven phases of development. Of these, only four phases are now physically evident, all dating from between the 1930s and the 1980s.

The 160-metre section at the downstream end incorporates work from 1939–40 and the 1961–62 replacement of the former 1912–13 quay. Extending up to Dunnes Stores, it consists of a reinforced-concrete deck supported on two rows of concrete piles, with vertical timber fenders and a horizontal rubbing strake. Cast-metal bollards are set along the edge. The bank underneath and behind the quay is sheeted with interlocking steel piles, and the track of a former travelling crane runs parallel to the quay edge. This section remains in active use by T-Met Recycling for loading scrap metal onto vessels for export and is locally known as the Scrapyard Quay. A modern metal-framed and metal-clad shed is associated with this use.

The next section, 85 metres long, extends upstream from Dunnes Stores. It is fronted with interlocking sheet steel pile with a metal railing along the top. This is the most recent phase of the wharf, constructed in the late 1980s when the former coal yards and transit sheds were cleared to create the Dunnes Stores car park. The adjoining Dunnes Stores and its car park stand on the site of three former coal yards — belonging to Kelly, Watt and Dalzell — along with transit sheds and the previous Harbour Office.

The final 25-metre section extends upstream to the Millennium Bridge. It formerly continued as far as Coleraine Bridge, but that portion was removed to make way for the new footbridge's abutment. This section is of sheet pile construction, dating from 1930–31, and has vertical timber fenders, a horizontal rubbing strake, a vertical metal ladder, and a metal handrail along the top. An automatic depth gauge has been added in the recent past. The Dunnes Stores car park lies behind.

Near the west bank, opposite Dunnes Stores, a timber post surmounted by a circular metal plate marks the turning circle for vessels returning seawards. The river is approximately 100 metres wide at this point.

HARBOUR RAILWAY (Component 9)

Nothing of the former Coleraine Harbour Railway now survives above ground. A spur off the main Coleraine–Londonderry railway was constructed by the Harbour Commissioners in 1892 to serve the quay extension built at that time, doing away with the need to tranship goods to the railway station some distance to the east. When the main line was rerouted over the new Bann Bridge in 1924, a portion of the original line was retained to maintain the harbour connection. In 1941 the line was extended to serve the 1939–40 quay extension, relaid to take heavier rolling stock, and the bridge over the Brook was rebuilt. The spur was last used in 1963 and officially abandoned in 1966. The access road down to T-Met's premises at the northern end of Bannside Wharf now follows the former route of the railway.

SETTING

The harbour is bounded to the west by the River Bann and to the north by marshy ground extending to the mainline railway, which crosses the Bann on a bascule bridge. Part of this ground is occupied by a sewage treatment works. To the east, the harbour is bounded by a housing estate and Anderson Park, beyond which lies the main Coleraine to Portrush and Portstewart road. Dunnes Stores and its car park define the southern end of the eastern boundary.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

For much of the 19th century the port of Coleraine was administered by the Coleraine Town Commissioners. The Ordnance Survey maps of 1830 and 1853 show a small quay of approximately 30 metres in length immediately downstream of the town bridge on the right bank of the Bann at the mouth of the Brook. Under an Act of 1879, the Coleraine Harbour Commissioners were established specifically to manage the harbour. The Act also empowered them to raise finance for improvements along the tidal stretch of the Bann up to Coleraine Bridge, above which the Lower Bann Navigation Trust had held jurisdiction since 1859. The Commissioners initiated the Barmouth Scheme between 1879 and 1888, in which moles were constructed at the seaward entrance to the River Bann to improve access to the port.

The 1882 large-scale town map shows the quay had been extended by approximately 15 metres northwards, though whether this was the work of the Town or Harbour Commissioners is uncertain. In 1883–84 the Commissioners extended the quay again, this time by approximately 105 metres, and also built transit sheds alongside. This extension was significantly higher than the existing quay and was faced with stone, except for a section at its downstream end which was of open pile construction. The older section near the bridge was always considered inadequate, and whilst the Commissioners intended to raise it to the same height as the new quay, lack of finance restricted them to piecemeal repairs. In 1887, however, they were able to replace a 15-metre section adjacent to the new quay. Cargo handling was further improved in 1892 with the opening of a railway spur from the main Coleraine–Londonderry line directly to the quay. In 1912 the quay was extended downstream by a further 45 metres, bringing the total wharfage to approximately 195 metres, and the following year the 35-metre open-piled downstream end of the 1883 quay was also replaced. Reinforced concrete piles were used for both of these sections, to designs by Messrs L. G. Mouchel and Partners Ltd of Westminster, who were among the pioneers of reinforced-concrete construction at a time when the material was still in its infancy.

In 1930–31 the surviving 70 metres of the 1884 timber wharf were replaced with a sheet steel pile frontage, and the older, lower section nearest the bridge was brought into alignment with it, heightened, and rebuilt with sheet steel piling. The river in front of the new quay was dredged at the same time. This work was carried out simultaneously with the upgrading of the Barmouth moles. In 1939–40, the quay was extended a further 75 metres downstream in reinforced-concrete piling, bringing the total quay length to 270 metres, and the harbour railway was upgraded and extended to serve it. This work was carried out by the Royal Engineers as part of the wartime effort.

The post-war period brought a marked increase in traffic. In the 1950s there were at least 300 ships per year, peaking at 449 vessels in 1955. Imports included timber, coal and fertiliser; potatoes were the main export. In 1953–54 a separate 130-foot reinforced-concrete piled quay — the Potato Quay — and associated transit sheds were constructed downstream of the existing quay on ground reclaimed through dredging in the late 1930s. In 1961–62 the entire 80-metre length of the 1912–13 concrete quay was completely rebuilt with reinforced-concrete piles, as rusting metalwork had caused the concrete to spall and the structure to weaken.

The harbour's subsequent decline is largely attributed to the modernisation of ports along the east coast, particularly Belfast, Larne and Warrenpoint, together with improvements in road infrastructure, bulk transportation, containerisation, and the advent of roll-on/roll-off ferries, which made Coleraine's hinterland equally accessible from the east coast as via the River Bann. The harbour railway was abandoned in 1966, three years after the last train ran. Despite the decline in traditional cargoes, the port did attract specialist traffic associated with new industries — notably Chemstrand — and liquefied naphtha was imported for the new town gasworks. The years 1985–86 saw the last major addition to the harbour in the form of the Riversdale Quay. In the late 1980s most of the 1931 sheet-pile quay just downstream from the bridge was abandoned and re-piled to form the frontage of the car park serving the Bannside Wharf shopping centre.

As a result of the River Bann Navigation Order (Northern Ireland) 2002, the Commissioners' remit now covers the river from the Millennium Footbridge, opened in 2001, to 500 metres beyond the Barmouth. The Riversdale Quay is now the focus of their operations. The 1930s and 1960s piled concrete quays at Bannside Wharf have been leased to T-Met for scrap metal export. In late 2010, the 1954 Potato Quay was taken out of commercial use and converted to accommodate the new marina pontoons and slipway for leisure cruisers.