Railway Bridge, Doran’s Hill, Newry, Co Down

This railway bridge carries the main Belfast to Dublin double-track railway across a minor road near Doran’s Hill, Newry. It is a modern rebuild, likely erected in the 1980s to replace the original structure following damage by terrorist activity. The original bridge was designed by Sir John Macneill and built by William Dargan in 1851 for the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway Company, as noted by W.A. Mc Cutcheon in 'Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland'.

The current bridge features a slightly skewed horizontal span of reinforced-concrete girders, supported on reinforced-concrete abutments. The wing walls of the abutments are faced with squared granodiorite rubble laid in irregular courses and finished with rusticated blocks. A two-bar galvanised metal safety rail runs along both sides of the bridge. Height warning signs, measuring 11 feet and 3.4 metres, are affixed to both faces. The bridge is of industrial archaeological interest as it demonstrates the development of railway bridge design, particularly when compared with other structures such as HB16/27/003.