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Ballater, Royal Bridge

Road Bridge (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Ballater, Royal Bridge

Classification Road Bridge (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) River Dee; Ballater Bridge

Canmore ID 32451

Site Number NO39NE 14

NGR NO 37215 95588

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/32451

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

  • Council Aberdeenshire
  • Parish Glenmuick, Tullich And Glengairn
  • Former Region Grampian
  • Former District Kincardine And Deeside
  • Former County Aberdeenshire

Archaeology Notes

NO39NE 14 37215 95588

For predecessor bridges (NO c. 3722 9560), see NO39NE 115.

NMRS NOTES: Ballater Bridge.

ARCHITECT: Thomas Telford (1803-1821) destroyed 1829.

ARCHITECT: Jenkins and Marr 1885.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

(Location cited as NO 372 956). Royal Bridge: built 1885 by engineers Jenkins and Marr. A 4-arch bridge with dressed-stone arch rings and pinned ashlar spandrels. The arches are segmental and the centre cutwaters are carried up and corbelled out to support rectangular refuges. Illustrated Bracegirdle and Miles, Thomas Telford, where it is wrongly attributed to that engineer.

J R Hume 1977.

(Location cited as NO 372 956). Royal Bridge, Ballater. An inscription on the present bridge mentions two predecessors, one built by Telford, whose stone bridge had spans of 34ft [3.7m], 55ft [16.8m], 60ft [18.3m], 55ft [16.8m] and 34ft [3.7m]. When destroyed it was replaced by a wooden one, designed by Joseph Mitchell and probably based on a Telford design.

The present stone bridge was financed by the County Road Trustees and opened by Queen Victoria in 1885; Jenkins and Marr were the enginers. It is a long bridge, and the parapet comes down in long steps which mask the rise of the roadway. The abutments are finished with round-topped pillars. The four segmental arches are on narrow piers with rounded cutwaters, and the central pier is extended up to a square refuge with some ornamentation. This central elongation and squaring off gives a curiously elegant air to a sold bridge.

G Nelson 1990.

Ballater Bridge, 1885, Jenkins and Marr. Four segmental arches with bull-nosed cutwaters, rectangular refuges in solid parapet, pinned red ashlar. An inscription tells the story: the first bridge, providing the essential commercial link to the wells, was built in 1783, and destroyed in 1789; the Thomas Telford bridge of 1809 was destroyed in the 'Muckle Spate' of 1829; the wooden bridge lasted from 1834 to 1885, and its foundations are still visible to the E.

J Geddes 2001.

This bridge carries the B971 public road across the River Dee on the SE side of Ballater. The bridge is depicted, but not noted, on the 1970 edition of the OS 1:2500 map. Unnoted open features immediately to the N may indicate the remains of predecessor bridges.

The location assigned to this record defines the centre of the span. The available map evidence indicates that it extends from NO c. 37176 95616 to NO c. 37261 95558.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 22 August 1997 and 5 January 2006.

Architecture Notes

NMRS NOTES

Ballater Bridge.

ARCHITECT: Thomas Telford (1803-1821) destroyed 1829.

ARCHITECT: Jenkins and Marr 1885.

Activities

Publication Account (2007)

Royal Bridge, Ballater

The present bridge crossing the Dee at Ballater has four 63 ft span low-rise segmental masonry arches constructed of local granite. Its design is similar to that used by Telford for his Highland bridges except for the stepped parapet in elevation. The bridge was completed in 1885 to a

design by Jenkins and Marr and the contractor was John Fyfe, Kemnay.

The bridge is on the site of three earlier bridges, the first of which was built from 1781–83 by James Robertson and destroyed by a flood in 1799. The second, designed by Telford and erected by John Simpson from 1807–09, was destroyed in the great Moray flood of 1829. Its centring was probably re-used at Laigh Milton Viaduct (5-4).

These bridges were of masonry, but the third, on a plan prepared under Telford’s direction, retaining the gentle arc of the parapet in elevation, was an outstanding timber bridge with four 70 ft spans, basically of traditional construction with slim timber-clad piers, erected by Gibb & Son in 1834–35 under Mitchell’s superintendence. It utilised the 1809 abutments and was ‘built entirely of Braemar natural timber . . . contract price £1857’, a modest cost for a quickly erected replacement which served for 50 years. A drawing was published in 1835 in the 21st Report of the Highland Roads and Bridges Commission.

R 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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