Railway Bridge, Cranny, Omagh, Co.Tyrone

Railway Bridge, Cranny

This is a three-span former railway bridge built around 1850, now disused. It carried the Portadown, Dungannon & Omagh Railway across the Drumragh River, aligned north to south. The bridge is constructed of squared uncoursed rock-faced basalt for the abutments, spandrels and parapets. Slightly projecting battered buttresses stand at either end. The parapet coping is roughly dressed limestone, largely intact though some stones are loose. Three equally sized round-headed arches with rock-faced voussoirs support the structure, with shallow semi-circular upstream and downstream cutwaters and tooled stone soffits.

The railbed is raised on steep embankments beside the Drumragh River. Raking perpendicular retaining walls drop to river level at either end of the bridge. No trace of the track remains; the bridge now carries only a disused grass track leading to open farmland.

The bridge first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854. The railway line itself was authorised as part of the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway Company scheme incorporated in 1845, which aimed to extend southwards from Londonderry through Strabane towards Omagh. The initial section proved unsuccessful due to short operating distances, storm damage and competition from canal and river navigation. It was not until the completion of the line to Omagh in 1852 that the railway became commercially viable. By 1861, with rail reaching Omagh from the south-east across the watershed between the Foyle and Bann catchment areas, direct rail connection between Dublin, Belfast and Londonderry became possible. Omagh and Strabane emerged as major market centres from which goods and livestock could be conveyed northwards to Londonderry port.

The bridge represents a substantial structure of high quality masonry and stands as one of the few remaining railway structures of merit along the former line. It is recorded as derelict and is of industrial archaeological interest.