Archaeology Notes

Event ID 692989

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/692989

NS37NE 32 39268 75358

Dumbarton Bridge [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1992.

Not to be confused with (successor) Artizan Bridge (NS 39262 75537), for which see NS37NE 184.

(Location cited as NS 393 753). Dumbarton Bridge was built in 1765, widened in 1884 and was reconstructed in 1934. A 5-span bridge, with dressed-stone arch rings and rubble spandrels and wing walls, extended in concrete. The arches are segmental, increasing in size to the centre, and there are rounded cutwaters extended up to form circular buttresses, now supporting the concrete extensions.

J R Hume 1976.

Dumbarton Bridge, 1765, John Brown. Long planned, the crossing of the Leven was not achieved until the 18th century. The bridge is supported on five segmental arches on fat cutaway piers. In 1884 W R Copland widened the roadway with iron cantilevers; further reconstruction was effected in 1933-4.

F A Walker and F J Sinclair 1992.

Dumbarton Bridge. In 1682, at the Convention of Burghs, a proposal was made to bridge the River Leven. It was not, however, until 1765 that the constructionb of a five-arched bridge was completed by the local mason John Brown. Segmental arches, with radial masonry fanning from the voussoirs, are carried on piers with massive rounded cutwaters. In 1768 John Smeaton reported on a sunken pier, advising Brown how to make good the damage. In 1884, W R Copland added concrete footpaths and balustrades, supporting this extra width on iron cantilever brackets set between the cutwaters. Further reconstruction by engineers F A MacDonald and partners, in 1933-4, added the concrete balustrade.

J Gifford and F A Walker 1992.

This bridge carries Bridge Street (a public road) over the River Leven on the W side of the town of Dumbarton (NS37NE 32). It forms the lowest crossing-point on the river, and is situated where the river forms the boundary between the parishes of Dumbarton (to the E) and Cardross (to the W). The name 'Dalreoch Bridge' has been applied to this structure.

The location assigned to this record defines the centre of the span. The available map evidence indicates that the bridge extends from NS c. 39215 75347 to NS c. 39328 75371.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 29 December 2005.