Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 589681
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/589681
The historic Old Musselburgh Bridge is 248 ft long and bridging the Esk is generally 1112 ft wide between parapets, overall up to 14 ft wide. It has three segmental arches of about 51 ft span and 11 ft rise with hood-moulds and chamfered archstones and is built of large squared-rubble courses. Both piers are protected by large ‘whalebacks’ of masonry and concrete. A plausible speculation about the bridge’s origin is that an earlier stone bridge, which certainly existed, was damaged or destroyed when the English burned Musselburgh in 1548 and the present bridge was erected in the 1550s at the expense of Jane, Lady Seton. Its similarities with Nungate Bridge, Haddington, have already been noted. More than 150 years ago the original ramped approaches were replaced by the present steps which restricted the bridge to pedestrian use.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
