Strabane Bridge, Bridge St, Strabane, Co Tyrone

Strabane Bridge is a seven-span stone road bridge built around 1800, carrying Bridge Street across the Mourne River in the town centre of Strabane. It is a well-constructed example of early nineteenth-century engineering and remains largely unchanged from its original form.

The bridge is constructed of tightly packed random rubble stone with random rubble parapets, abutments and spandrels secured by cast-iron wall-ties. The parapet is coped with segmental concrete and is surmounted by cast-iron lamp-posts along its length. The bridge features seven semi-circular-headed arches with squared rubble voussoirs and rubble V-shaped cutwaters that terminate just above arch spring level. The arch soffits are cement rendered. All the arches are of equal size except the westernmost arch, which is lower and narrower, a difference reflected in the road and parapet line which rises from east to west at this end.

The carriageway is approximately 8 metres wide and is provided with pedestrian footways to the east and west. The parapet wall continues beyond the bridge at the south-west to form a boundary wall to the surrounding residential area; rendered walling to the south-east continues to form a boundary to the road at the river.

Soffit markings indicate that the original bridge was widened by approximately three-quarters of its original width. Seven pairs of cast-steel electrified lamp standards have been placed on the parapets in recent times. The bridge was substantially modified during a major flood prevention scheme along the Mourne River, which involved the creation of vertical reinforced-concrete retaining walls along the banks on either side of the bridge. As part of this work, the west ends of the parapets were rebuilt, the north end of the east abutment was replaced in concrete (with a pipe carried through the arch on this side), and the bridge piers were underpinned.

The bridge is located on a main road within Strabane town centre, with residential housing to the south and the commercial town centre to the north. It was the only bridge crossing the Mourne in Strabane until the construction of the railways. The bridge is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. Historical records indicate that in 1808, the Reverend S Hamilton, R Cochran and J Barclay were granted £14 6s 6d by the grand jury at Omagh assizes to repair the walls of Strabane Bridge. From its relatively plain style of construction, the bridge is probably of eighteenth-century date, with the lack of embellishment and dressed stone in the newer section suggesting it may date to the late eighteenth century or early nineteenth century.