The W bridge, at Favor Royal House, Favour Royal Road, Augher, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT77 OEW

The W Bridge at Favour Royal House

This small bridge carries the main driveway across a stream that flows from the River Blackwater to the north down to a now-drained lake to the south. Built between 1840 and 1859, it is constructed in random rubble stone with a segmental arch and dressed voussoirs. The parapet is finished with a battlemented rubble coping.

The bridge has group value with the other listed structures within the Favour Royal demesne, which includes the main house (a Tudor Manorial Style building constructed in 1825), a lodge, main gates, a north bridge, garden cottage, walled garden, pigsty, weigh house, and outer yard. The demesne is bounded to the north by the River Blackwater, to the east by Derrymeen Road, to the south by the County Monaghan border, to the west by the church of St Mary's Portclare, and to the northwest by Favour Royal Road. The bridge is recorded on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map and is of industrial archaeological interest.

Favour Royal has a long history. James I granted Sir Thomas Ridgeway 740 acres in 1613, which were later purchased by Sir James Erskine. Charles II confirmed the Manor of Portclare (known as Favour Royal) to the Erskine family in 1665. The estate was eventually divided between two granddaughters; one half became Spur Royal and the other Favour Royal. One granddaughter married John Moutray, and together they built the first house and created the demesne in 1670. The original house was destroyed by accidental fire in 1823. Captain John Corry Moutray commissioned architect John Hargrave to design the replacement. The Moutray family remained significant landowners in the valley, at one point holding rental of 36 townlands and employing a staff of 80 people.