BRIDGE NO 2, to north of Termon Road, Carrickmore, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT79 9HW

Bridge No 2, north of Termon Road, Carrickmore, Omagh, County Tyrone

A single-span bridge built around 1850, carrying the former railway line over the Camowen River. The bridge is constructed of squared-and-snecked rockfaced sandstone with piers and spandrels in matching material. The single semi-circular arch features dressed rockfaced voussoirs with a coursed ashlar soffit. The carriageway, approximately 3 metres wide, is finished with flat rockfaced coping to the top, with no parapet. To the north and south, perpendicular retaining walls terminate in low square pillars. The bridge is now free-standing within rural agricultural land, with remains of embankment visible to east and west.

The bridge first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853, associated with the Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Railway. By the third edition of 1906 the railway was captioned as the GNR (Portadown and Londonderry Branch), and by the fourth edition as GNR (Ireland).

The railway line was authorised in 1857 as the Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Junction Railway Company. The 27-mile single-track line from Dungannon to Omagh was constructed with £100,000 of share capital and £33,000 of loans. The engineering was substantial, including a single-track tunnel almost half a mile in length through Windmill Hill. The line was extended across the moorlands of the south Sperrin Mountains via Pomeroy and Carrickmore to Sixmilecross, Beragh and Omagh, where a junction was made with the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway on 2 September 1861. The completed 41-mile line from Portadown to Omagh was leased to the Ulster Railway Company on 1 January 1876 for 999 years. The Ulster Railway merged with the Northern Railway Company on 1 April 1876 to form The Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland).