Bench Mark, Belfast
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Bench Mark, Belfast by Rossographer as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Bench Mark, Belfast
Image: © Rossographer Taken: 8 Jul 2010
A bolt bench mark set into the northern side of the Commercial Buildings, Waring Street, Belfast. See Image - the mark is just visible on the extreme bottom right of picture, partially obscured by the railings. This mark dates from the 1st levelling of Ireland which took place in 1839-43 and is probably the last mark from that period still extant in central Belfast. The original remarks for the mark describe it as "Copper bolt driven vertically into stone in North front of Commercial Buildings, Belfast; 1.3 feet above centre of road". It was initially levelled to 20.226 feet above sea level. Today the mark has been levelled to 3.11 metres above MSL. This mark was the principle starting point for levelling lines leading from and to Belfast. From here lines of levelling went south to Armagh, east to Newtownards & Donaghadee, north to Antrim & onto Coleraine and north-east to Carrickfergus and on up the coast road to Portrush. See also http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=11037856 for many other examples I have found.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
54.600865
Longitude
-5.927107