Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016417

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016417

Built by Blaikie Bros, Aberdeen, in 1886 for the Great North of Scotland Railway between Elgin and the Banffshire coast, to a design by Patrick Barnett, this is an awe-inspiring iron structure thrust between river and sky.

Its great length (290m overall) was determined by the Spey's habit of periodically changing channels in the broad level plain near its mouth. The solution was to build a great bowed central truss, 106.6m long and 13m high, with three 30.5m plain truss approach spans on either side, all supported on circular ashlar piers with granite capitals. When completed the bridge was tested with a load of 400 tons of gravel in 20 trucks; the bridge deflected by 29mm.

Now part of the Speyside Way from Spey Bay to Ballindall och, the walker on the bridge can fully appreciate the confidence of Victorian engineering in erecting this cathedral of grey girders and trusses that arch above the ceaseless, turbid Spey.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).