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Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016154
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016154
For most of history and prehistory the most important north-south route in south-east Scotland lay through Lauderdale, and around the meeting of the Leader Water and the River Tweed it met its most difficult natural barrier. The Tweed, however, was fordable a little to the west and where the Roman trunk road, later Dere Street, was able to cross the river there grew
up perhaps the most important Roman fort in Scotland, Newstead or Trimontium.
In more recent times the main road and rail routes have followed the coastal route to the east but the A 68 is still a key line of communication to north-east England and the most recent 3-span road bridge stands alongside its predecessor, built between 1776 and 1780 and described in 1798 as that very substantial and elegant [structure] over Tweed at Drygrange, whose middle arch has a span of 105 feet" (32 m).
This rubble-built bridge has 4 spans. Only the large main arch is segmental; it is flanked by smaller semicircular arches with a sizeable arched recess at the southern end. The cut-waters support piers which
terminate in triangular refuges for pedestrians crossing the bridge; and these piers, like the outer walls above the main arch, contain attractive carved decoration. Most prominent are the sculpted urns set within circular panels. From the line of the projecting stone corbels above, it is clear that the parapets have been raised to make for a more level roadway.
A little to the west stands the tall, graceful, single-track Leaderfoot railway viaduct. Built of an attractive pinkish-red sandstone, its 19 semicircular brick-lined arches rest on slender stone pillars, subsequently reinforced with buttresses. Opened in 1865 for the Berwickshire Railway, and long abandoned, it linked places such as Earlston, Greenlaw, Duns and Chirnside both with the main east-coast line at Reston and with the Waverley route from Edinburgh to Carlisle, just south of Leaderfoot - a route which for largely industrial reasons (the location of the Midlothian coalfield) passed down the valley of the Gala rather than the Leader Water.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland’s Heritage, Lothian and Borders’ (1985).
