Bloody Bridge, (old), Ballagh Road, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0LA

This is a bridge of likely early 18th-century date, situated on Ballagh Road in Newcastle, County Down. Its construction is stylistically typical of bridges built before 1800, characterized by a simple, unembellished design using random fieldstone, offering a marked contrast to a later, mid-19th century bridge located downstream. The name “Bloody Bridge” is linked to the site of a 1641 massacre, adding to its historical significance. Successive widenings demonstrate increased traffic volumes along this route prior to the 19th-century bridge’s construction.

The bridge features a single semicircular arch carrying a footpath over the Bloody Bridge River. It is built of random rubble granite fieldstones with split, undressed Silurian rubble voussoirs, rising directly from the bedrock. The arch measures 6.2 meters across the parapets, with a 5.1-meter wide carriageway. Two distinct breaks are visible within the soffit. The differing construction of the soffit – rounded fieldstones on the upstream side and split Silurian rubble on the downstream side – suggests that the upstream section is the oldest and has been widened on two occasions, initially from 2.4 meters to 3.6 meters and then to its current width of 6.4 meters. The upstream parapet and spandrels have been rebuilt more recently. A short length of roadway is present on the south side of the bridge.

A bridge is depicted at this location on Harris’s 1743 map, and it corresponds to the crossing point of the Newcastle to Kilkeel road as shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey (OS) six-inch map. The 1859 OS map indicates that it had been superseded by a new bridge located a short distance downstream. The river was originally known as the Midpace River but was renamed after the aforementioned massacre ordered by Sir Conn Magennis, resulting in the deaths of 25 or 50 Protestant prisoners of war from Newry. While it’s uncertain if a bridge existed at the time of this event, the 1830s Ordnance Survey Memoir for Kilkeel parish notes that no bridge was present then. Nevertheless, it’s likely that the bridge shown on Harris’s map and the existing structure are the same, suggesting a construction date of around 1720-1739 or earlier. The bridge holds industrial archaeological interest, exhibiting a simple plan form and a robust structural system. It possesses group value alongside the nearby 19th-century bridge and provides a valuable insight into the development of transport infrastructure in the region.