Spean Bridge. View of bridge.

Description Spean Bridge. View of bridge.

Date 1/9/1883

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number IN 951

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 746329

Scope and Content High Bridge over the River Spean, Highland High Bridge, one of the major achievements of General Wade's military road building scheme undertaken for the government between 1724 and 1740, was built over the River Spean in 1736. The Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge, photographed the bridge in 1883. Because the river cuts down in an extremely steep valley, Wade decided to build a high bridge with three spans of widths 12.2m, 15.2m and 12.2m. He constructed the spans 24.4m above the river which, at this point, is 9.1m deep, giving an overall height of 33.5m. The bridge was his standard width of 4.9m, and 85.4m long. In 1883, when the photograph was taken, the bridge was in some degree of disrepair, but nevertheless was an impressive piece of construction. It must have been even more so when it was first completed in an area of Scotland where roads were a rarity, and at a spot where previously only the bravest swimmer would have dared to cross. Historically, the point of crossing is of interest as it was here that the first skirmish of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion took place. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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