Milestone, Outside150 Glassdrumman Rd, Annalong, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4QL

This is one of a group of 24 milestones originally located between Newry and Newcastle, County Down. Seventeen of these milestones survive, representing a probable unique survival in the province. The milestone stands on the west side of the Newcastle – Kilkeel road, a few yards south of a bend warning sign. It is a dressed granite post embedded in a roadside bank, 60cm high and approximately 23cm square in cross-section, topped with a pyramid. The number ‘19’, cut 15cm high, is carved into the surface facing the road; the other surfaces are now obscured.

The milestone first appears on the 1901 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (sheet 53). It was likely present by the time of the 1859 Ordnance Survey map, although not marked then. It probably dates from the late 1700s or early 1800s, or even earlier; it is uncertain whether the mile intervals shown on Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the roads of Ireland, 1777 correspond with actual markers at the time. Documentary evidence suggests its existence on a map from 1834. This milestone is of industrial archaeological interest.