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Publication Account

Date 1986

Event ID 1017352

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017352

With its six arches and solid piers built in local red sandstone the old bridge over the Nith at Dumfries is a picturesque and memorable sight; it is also the oldest surviving multiple-arched stone bridge in Scotland, second only to the single-arched Bridge of Balgownie at Aberdeen in point of antiquity. Known as Dervorguilla Bridge, it has obviously inherited the name of its late 13th century, and probably timberbuilt predecessor. However, its construction was funded, not by the munifIcent Dervorguilla de Balliol but by the Douglases and the Burgh of Dumfries, and building work is known to have been in progress in 1431. The bridge was half wrecked by floods in 1620, and evidence of rebuilding can be detected in the eastern half of the structure. In fact, the bridge had no less than nine arches until the early 19th century when it lost its three easternmost arches and became restricted to foot traffIc, hence the somewhat abrupt stepped approach. With its 3.9m-wide carriageway and its arched toll-gate (removed in 1769), the old bridge had been equal to the demands of medieval wheeled traffic in and out of Galloway, but by the late 18th century its retirement had become long overdue.

The new bridge was a five-arched structure designed by Thomas Boyd, a local architect (see no. 21). The construction of the bridge involved an elaborate ramped approach along what is now Buccleuch Street, and problems were encountered in the laying of foundations on that bank. The bridge was finally completed in 1794, and almost exactly a century later, in 1893, it was widened and had pedestrian paths cantilevered out. Since then it has undergone two major overhauls, and now shares the town's considerable traffic load with St Michael's Bridge (1927) downstream.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).

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