The Quoile Bridge is a railway bridge across the

River Quoile The Quoile (; ) is a river in County Down, Northern Ireland. Course The river begins its life as the Ballynahinch River which flows from west of the town of Ballynahinch to Annacloy where it is known as the Annacloy River. This then becomes t ...

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the bu ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It is long and carries a single-track line.

History

Belfast & County Down Railway

The original bridge was constructed in 1859, one of the few river crossings on the

Belfast and County Down Railway The Belfast and County Down Railway (BCDR) was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland (later Northern Ireland) linking Belfast with County Down. It was built in the 19th century and absorbed into the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. All but th ...

. It carried trains from Queen's Quay to

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. This bridge was made of timber piles with lattice trusses, and was replaced in 1929 with a steel girder bridge. After the railway was closed by the

Ulster Transport Authority The Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966. Formation and consolidation The UTA was formed by the Transport Act 1948, which merged the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board (NIRTB ...

in 1950 (Having taken it over just two years prior), the bridge was abandoned and the girders and deck removed, through the concrete abutments and centre pier remained.

Downpatrick & County Down Railway

In 1999, Northern Ireland's only Irish standard gauge

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

, the

Downpatrick and County Down Railway The Downpatrick and County Down Railway (DCDR) is a five-foot, three-inch (1,600 mm) gauge heritage railway in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is operated by volunteers and runs passenger trains using steam and diesel locomotives, diese ...

. began reconstructing the line from Downpatrick towards Belfast. This meant reconstructing the Quoile Bridge, which was done with £110,000 1929-replica girders fabricated in

Dunmurry Dunmurry (; ) is an urban townland in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dunmurry is in the Collin electoral ward for the local government district of Belfast City Council. History Until the end of the 18th century, Dunmurry was largely an agricultura ...

and brought to Downpatrick by lorry. The bridge opened to passenger traffic in 2004.

Today

The Quoile Bridge is one of the most notable features of the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway. It carries their 'North Line' from Downpatrick to

Inch Abbey railway station Inch Abbey railway station (often shortened to just Inch) is a station on the Downpatrick & County Down Railway, a heritage railway in Northern Ireland. It is the terminus of the railway's ''North Line'' and serves Inch Abbey, a ruined mona ...

and sees regular use, carrying over 10 trains per day on the weekends around St. Patrick's Day, May Day, Easter, the summer holidays and New Year's.

References

{{coord, 54.33134, -5.73570, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB-NIR, display=title Railway bridges in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures in County Down