When plans for the M11 motorway from Lisburn to the border at Newry were abandoned in the early 1970s, it then became paramount to dual the existing A1 road instead. Since money was scarce, this proceeded very slowly indeed with bypasses of the major towns coming first and then the remaining sections filled in. The short section at Tinker Hill was an exception. It was upgraded to dual-carriageway some time ago to help traffic leaving or arriving at Newry overtake those bothersome slow vehicles.

There is a plan in the pipeline to construct a new, much better, dual carriageway from the A1 north of Tinker Hill around to the western side of Newry. This will have the effect of downgrading the Tinker Hill stretch to a local road, eliminating the need for any major improvements here. The stretch has been a focus of local government and police concern in recent years.

Heading south along the Tinker Hill section of the A1 dual carriageway. [Photo by Wesley Johnston]

With thanks to Patrick Shiels for additional information on this page.