Pier, opp Ballyronan House, Ballyronan, Cookstown, Co Londonderry, BT45 6JA, ** See General comments

This pier at Ballyronan was constructed around 1788 as a quay with a rubble stone base. It is an unusual surviving example of a late 18th-century pier, though its condition has deteriorated over time due to activity around the lough shore and environmental changes.

The pier is located to the east of Ballyronan village on the shores of Lough Neagh, accessible via Ballynagarve Road and positioned opposite Ballyronan House. It is linear in plan, orientated northeast to southwest, with its northeastern end extending into the lough and its southwestern end set back onto the land.

The structure is constructed on a substantial mound of rubble stone, with exposed rubble visible on the sides and perimeter overgrown with creeping foliage and trees. The southwestern entrance is marked by eight cut-stone steps leading to the main plateau of the quay, with a galvanised metal handrail to the left of the steps. A tarmac path runs along the left side, with a grassed area to the right. The northeastern end features a random rubble wall to the right, beneath which is a raised random rubble stepped area meeting the tarmac path. Beyond this, large boulders are laid out irregularly, with a sloped cut-stone slipway of random rubble construction extending to the end of the pier. Metal railings continue around the slipway and return along the right side, meeting the random rubble wall.

According to the Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836, the pier consisted of 'a collection of stones secured by piles' extending into the lough in a curving direction to approximately 257 feet in length and 15 feet broad on average. The pier was built by David Gaussen on a lease of land belonging to the Salters' Company. Around it, he developed Ballyronan village with extensive grocery, spirit, timber, iron, coal and grain stores primarily supplying neighbouring towns. In 1824, his sons David, Charles and James added a distillery to the south of the village, and around 1828–30 a brewery just southwest of the pier, with much of their produce exported to Belfast. Both the distillery and brewery had relatively short existences, closing sometime before 1857.

By 1852, the lease of Ballyronan had reverted to the Salters' Company. Expected improvements to the village and linkage to the developing railway network under Salters' Company management never materialised, and the village's growth stalled. In the second half of the 19th century, Ballyronan was surpassed by other trading centres with better railway access and never expanded beyond its pre-1830s boundaries. The pier itself experienced an unusual fate as the lowering of Lough Neagh's water level in the later 19th century and again in the 20th century caused much of it to become landlocked.

The structure's setting has been somewhat degraded by the lowering of the lough's water level and the addition of adjoining buildings. Whilst listed at present, scheduling may be considered a more appropriate form of protection. The pier retains significant industrial archaeological interest as evidence of late 18th-century commercial and industrial development in the region.