Bridge, Barracric Road, Newry, Co. Armagh, BT35 8LP

This bridge carries Barracric Road over the double-track Belfast-Dublin railway, located east of the main Dundalk road, in the townland of Fathom Lower. Constructed between 1840 and 1859, it was built by the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway Company to designs by its chief engineer, Sir John Macneill, with construction undertaken by William Dargan. The bridge’s completion in 1851, alongside the nearby Craigmore Viaduct in 1852, facilitated full operation of the railway line between Belfast and Dublin.

The bridge is a single semi-elliptical span built from coarsely-dressed granodiorite blocks, laid in regular courses apart from the irregularly laid parapet. The abutments have tooled edges, and the arch is formed of rock-faced voussoirs also with a tooled edge. A rusticated string course runs through the arch at its base, and a finely-dressed string course sits just above the crown. The parapet coping is also finely-dressed, chamfered and slightly advanced, following the road's gradient in stepped rises (two steps on the north side, and four on the south). The road faces of the parapets are strap-pointed. Shallow buttresses with tooled edges flank the approach walls on either side, extending up to parapet level. The east end of the north parapet transitions into a random rubble wall that separates the road from the railway cutting, extending northwards.

The bridge is part of a larger group of rail-related bridges along a 3km rock-cut excavation, bringing the line up from the Newry direction between Cloghoge and Killeen, representing a substantial piece of civil engineering work. It has historical associations with Sir John Macneill and William Dargan. While demonstrating industrial archaeological interest, its modest scale means it does not meet the criteria for formal listing.