Crevenagh Bridge, Omagh, Co.Tyrone

Crevenagh Bridge is a modest former road-over-railway bridge built around 1840 near Omagh in County Tyrone. Though no longer serving its original purpose, it remains one of the few surviving railway structures of architectural merit along the former Portadown, Dungannon & Omagh Railway line and represents the late nineteenth-century infrastructural development of the county.

The bridge is a single-span hump-backed structure originally designed to carry the avenue of Crevenagh Farm over the rail-line to Crevenagh Road. Its construction demonstrates high-quality masonry technique throughout. The abutments, spandrels and parapets are built in squared random coursed rock-faced basalt, with parapet coping of roughly dressed rock-faced limestone. A single round-headed arch with rock-faced voussoirs having tooled edges carries the roadway, with a red brick soffit. Battered buttresses to both abutments taper inwards to parapet level and are formed in rock-faced basalt. To the east the abutments are curved and drop in level.

The bridge first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854, identified as part of the Portadown, Dungannon & Omagh Railway. The Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway Company was incorporated in 1845 to construct a line extending southwards from Londonderry. The initial section proved unsuccessful due to its short length, storm damage and competition from the Strabane canal and Foyle navigation. However, upon completion of the line to Omagh in 1852, the benefits became apparent. Omagh and Strabane emerged as major market centres from which goods and livestock could be conveyed northwards to Londonderry. In 1861, direct rail connection between Dublin, Belfast and Londonderry became possible when Omagh was reached from the south-east across the watershed separating the Foyle and Bann catchment areas. The Ulster Transport Authority closed the line from Portadown to Derry via Omagh on 3 February 1965, ending 113 years of railway history.

Today the bridge is severed by the Great Northern Road and serves as a drive to a private dwelling to the west of Crevenagh Road. A single-lane bitumac carriageway now provides access to a modern house to the east. The ground level of the former rail line has been built up and now forms a private garden to the dwelling. No visible trace of the former rail line remains.