Clarks Bridge, Tully Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 5NR

Clarks Bridge is a single-span road bridge built around 1850, carrying Tully Road over the now-disused railway line. It was constructed during the mid-nineteenth century to carry the road over the new section of the Londonderry to Enniskillen railway, and remains as an important remnant of the route and part of the industrial heritage of the district.

The bridge is constructed of squared-and-snecked rockfaced sandstone throughout, with substantial piers and abutments on either side. The spandrels and parapet are of matching sandstone, terminating in substantial piers. A dressed rockfaced sandstone string course runs at carriageway level, and the parapet is coped with dressed rockfaced stone. A single elliptical-headed arch with dressed rockfaced voussoirs springs from a rockfaced string course, with the arch soffit finished in squared-and-snecked work. The carriageway is approximately 4 metres wide. The robust stonework detailing and dressings have survived intact, and the structure remains unaltered and in good condition.

The bridge is situated in a rural location with dwellings to the west. The road rises to carriageway level at the east, and land to east and west of the road is bounded by hedging.

Clarks Bridge first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1854, carrying a road over the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway. By the third edition of 1905, this had become the Great Northern Railway, following the company's merger in 1876. The Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway Company was authorised in 1845 and reached Omagh in 1852, Fintona in 1853, and Enniskillen in 1854. The railway brought important commercial advantages to the towns it served, and Omagh and Strabane emerged as major market centres from which goods and livestock could be conveyed northwards to the port of Londonderry. In 1860 the line was leased to the Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway Company, subsequently the Irish North Western Railway Company.