Mourne Beg Bridge, Magheranageeragh Road, Mourne Beg/Lislaird, Castlederg, Co Tyrone

A four-span bridge, built around 1800, carries Magheranageeragh Road over the Mourne Beg River. This late Georgian stone bridge remains an impressive feature in the landscape, despite some repairs using unsympathetic materials. The bridge has random rubble parapets and spandrels, with a cement-rendered coping to the parapet. It features four segmental-headed arches constructed with ashlar sandstone voussoirs, accompanied by ashlar sandstone V-shaped cutwaters with concrete plinth additions. The arch soffits are cement rendered, and the carriageway is approximately 6m wide with a slightly humped profile. The parapet wall continues beyond the bridge to the west, forming a boundary wall to surrounding agricultural land, with a further small flood-arch present. Extensive concrete block and cement repairs are visible, including partial replacement of the parapet walling. The bridge is located in a rural setting to the west of Castlederg, where the riverbank is bounded by wire fencing. The bridge appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, though unnamed, and is captioned ‘Mourne Bridge’ on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854. While possessing the slightly hump-backed profile of an eighteenth-century packhorse bridge, the multi-span construction and ornamentation suggest a later date, likely around 1800. It is considered to be of industrial archaeological interest.