Photographic Survey

Date July 2007 - April 2008

Event ID 577459

Category Recording

Type Photographic Survey

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/577459

NH 3964 6288 Following a desk-based assessment and site visit in July 2007 further visits were undertaken in order to make a photographic record of progress during the two phases of the renovation works, with this season’s work covering the final phase in the early spring of 2008. A geo-referenced plan and digital plot of the camera locations was also completed.

This stone bridge, scheduled monument no. 2720, located to the E of Little Garve, was built in c1762 under the supervision of Major Caulfield in order to carry the Contin to Poolewe military road (RCAHMS MR 17) across the river. Constructed from rubble (cobbles and boulders), including squared-off dressings at the arches, it is a long humpback bridge and has a large single arch ring (the eastern flood arch) with a secondary arch at the western end. A coped parapet made up of both horizontal and vertical slabs rises to a point over the apex of the eastern flood arch. The eastern approach is curved and splayed.

It is believed locally that the northern elevations, at the W end of the bridge, were shored up by the Newfoundland Timber Corps working in the area in the 1940s. A reference of 1934 says it was even then shored up at the NW end by two old telegraph poles. These appeared to be still in place in 2007. In 1987, the poor condition of the bridge led to its being closed to traffic. The bridge was further damaged during the winter of 2005–6, when a small section of the bridge collapsed. The first photographs taken, at the end of July 2007, show trees growing from the stonework and the timber shoring on the NW side in a severely rotted state.

In February 2008 steeplejacks began repair and consolidation of those areas of the external elevations that

had not been accessible from the temporary scaffolding erected in the previous autumn. In March fresh turf was laid over a combination of geotextile and bentonite (Water Lines Solutions) at the junction of the internal roadway and parapets, both N and S sides. This treatment was applied primarily as waterproofing.

Completion of the works was recorded in April 2008. All of the designated areas of masonry and mortar scheduled for repair and consolidation have been completed to plan, including the clearing of vegetation and heavy cement mortar from the junctions of the long walls with the natural rock outcrops in the inner arch elevations. However, it was also noted that some voids remain on these elevations to allow water to be directed off of the upper bridge roadway. Here, it is presumed, sacrificial weathering and water flow damage will continue and the masonry and pointing of these inner arches will require continual monitoring.

Archive: Highland Archaeology Services Ltd

Funder: Forestry Commission Scotland

Cait McCullagh (Highland Archaeology Services Ltd), 2008