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Aultbea, Clapper Bridge

Road Bridge (18th Century)

Site Name Aultbea, Clapper Bridge

Classification Road Bridge (18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Allt Beithe

Canmore ID 11973

Site Number NG88NE 4

NGR NG 87376 88984

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11973

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Gairloch
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Ross And Cromarty
  • Former County Ross And Cromarty

Archaeology Notes

NG88NE 4 87376 88984

(Location cited as NG 873 889). Clapper bridge, Aultbea, 18th to 19th century. A 7-span clapper bridge, with spans of unequal length.

J R Hume 1977.

This bridge carries the former line of the A832 public road over the Allt Beithe a short distance E of its entry into Loch Ewe. It lies to the E of the present road and to the S of Aultbea village (NG88NE 37).

This bridge is depicted but not noted on the 1968 edition of the OS 1:10,560 map, and on the current edition of the OS (GIS) AIB.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 10 April 2006.

Activities

Publication Account (1995)

Clapper bridges are built from stone slabs piled into rough piers with other slabs laid across the top to form the roadway. This bridge crosses a burn running out into the sea at Aultbea. It is now bypassed by a new bridge for motor traffic, and has been carefully restored. Six rectangular dry stone piers are set close together and bridged by flat stone slabs, forming seven spans of unequal length. There are low parapets either side. This very simple type of bridge construction has remained in use into recent times where conditions are suitable, and it is much easier to build than an arched bridge. The village of Aultbea has a row of attractive 18th and 19th-century cottages along the shore, and a pier at the end of the headland.

There are a number of other dapper bridges in Wester Ross and northwest Scotland, induding several small dapper bridges on the old track that led round the northern coast of the Applecross peninsula, now replaced by a modern road, and a three-span bridge at NG 713398, south of Applecross; also a seven-span dapper bridge built c1835 at Achriesgill near Rhiconich, Sutherland (NC 256540).

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Highlands’, (1995).

Publication Account (2007)

Aultbea Clapper Bridge

(Institute Civil Engineers Historic Engineering Works no. HEW 1695)

The clapper bridge at Aultbea on Loch Ewe, probably dating from the early-19th century, formerly carried the A832 over a watercourse flowing into the loch. The bridge, which has been kept in good repair, is approximately 42 ft long and 15 ft wide, with six river and one land openings.

These are about 3 ft wide and 4 ft high between the causewayed river bed and the stone lintels which are of varying thickness.

This bridge is probably the best Scottish example of this type.

Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.

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