Bridge, On Belfast-Larne railway line, White Head, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38

A four-arch viaduct carries the defunct 'down' line of the Belfast-Larne railway across a re-entrant just north of Whitehead Tunnel, near Carrickfergus. Though modest in scale, it is a good example of its type and exhibits notable embellishment through the use of limestone quoins and voussoirs which contrast with its black basalt matrix. The irregular spacing of the arches is notable and was presumably dictated by local topography.

The abutments and piers are of random rubble basalt brought to courses. The arches are of segmental profile and embellished with rusticated or margined limestone voussoirs. The spandrels are detailed as the abutments and are coped with roughly dressed stone blocks, with their ends embellished with rusticated limestone quoins. The arch at the south end is now buried, though visible in old photographs. The next arch along is orthogonal and has dressed stone soffit blocks. The adjoining arch is of skew profile with soffit blocks also set skewly. The fourth arch, at the north end, is separate from the other three and also of skewed construction. The east ends of the three visible arches are blocked with stone and or earth.

At the north end of the viaduct is a skew flat span which carries the line over a footpath leading to the shore. The abutments and quoins of this bridge are detailed as the masonry viaduct. The original span was probably of timber or metal, replaced with a reinforced-concrete span, probably when the line was doubled in 1928. This span was in turn replaced in the 1990s with precast concrete slabs on concrete pillow beams over the tops of the abutments, with the previous concrete parapets replaced by two-bar tubular steel railings. Just east is another skew span carrying the operational line over the same footpath, with mass concrete abutments, a reinforced-concrete slab deck and parapets, dated '1928' on their outside faces.

The line between Carrickfergus and Whitehead was constructed by the Carrickfergus & Larne Railway Company and opened in October 1862, originally single track and worked by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Company. In 1903, the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway was acquired by the Midland Railway and operated through its Northern Counties Committee. The Midland became part of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway in 1923. Between 1926 and 1929, the line between Carrickfergus and Whitehead was doubled by the London, Midland & Scottish Railway. The section on which the viaduct lies became the 'down' line to Whitehead, whilst a new 'up' line to Carrickfergus was directed along a cutting blasted through a rocky headland on the seaward side of the tunnel. In 1994, a rock fall forced the abandonment of this section of the down line and the re-ballasting of the up line around the headland for two-way working. Despite work to stabilise the cliff face above the tunnel and renewal of the bridge to the north, there are no immediate plans to re-open this stretch of line, although it remains a long-term objective, finances permitting. The viaduct is of industrial archaeological interest.