View fron south

Description View fron south

Date 14/5/2001

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number E 15327 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 769272

Scope and Content Invercauld Bridge, Aberdeenshire, from the south (New Invercauld Bridge) This rather handsome granite ashlar bridge spans the river in three main segmental arches, with a smaller arch at each end hidden by the trees. It has rounded cutwaters and oculi in the spandrels between the main arches. In 1855 the new Balmoral Castle on the Balmoral estate was almost completed, and Prince Albert turned his attention on laying out the grounds. However, there was a question of privacy as the public road from Ballater to Braemar followed the south bank of the River Dee through the Balmoral estate. Up to this point the south bank road had only been used by local people, but now that Balmoral was a royal residence, royal privacy had to be ensured, and this stretch of the south bank road was closed by the Ballater Turnpike Road Act of 1855. Prince Albert then financed the building of new bridges at the eastern and western ends of the estate, so that traffic on the south bank road from Ballater by-passed the estate by continuing along the north bank of the river before crossing back to the south bank by this new bridge at Invercauld. Invercauld Bridge was built in 1859 at the expense of Prince Albert in order to secure his privacy on the Balmoral estate, which he and Queen Victoria purchased in 1852. The bridge, which may have been designed by William Smith, the architect of Balmoral castle, provided a new crossing for the north Deeside road when the south Deeside road between Invercauld and Balmoral was closed in 1855. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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