Milestone, Near Entrance to Narrow Water Demesne, Newry Rd, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34

This is a roadside milestone situated on the verge of the dual carriageway between Warrenpoint and Newry, just west of the entrance to Narrow Water Castle. It is one of approximately twenty surviving milestones, out of an original twenty-four, that once marked the route between Newry and Newcastle; a unique concentration found nowhere else in Northern Ireland. The milestone is a finely dressed granite post with a pyramidal top, measuring 30cm square in cross-section and standing 55cm above ground level. The figure ‘4’ is incised, at a height of 18cm, on the three sides facing the road, indicating a distance of four Irish miles from Newry. It does not appear on any Ordnance Survey map. The use of Irish miles as a measurement suggests a date of around the early 19th century. Although milestones are shown at these locations on Taylor & Skinner’s 1777 maps of the roads of Ireland, this particular milestone likely dates from a slightly later period. The milestone is of industrial archaeological interest.