Archaeology Notes

Event ID 699831

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/699831

NS31NW 14 33237 17830

(NS 3323 1782) Old Bridge of Doon (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map (1981)

Location formerly entered as NS 33241 17836.

For (successor and present) New Bridge of Doon (downstream, to NW, at NS 33155 17943), see NS31NW 87.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE

Nat. Lib.

Country Life 19th July 1943 - Information and photograph

Non-Guardianship Sites Plan Collection, DC23116- DC23118, 1928.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

(Location cited as NS 332 178). Auld Brig o' Doon, Alloway, 15th century, repaired 1832. A slender segmental-arched bridge, with a dressed-stone arch ring and rubble spandrels and wing walls. Now a footbridge only. Made famous by Robert Burn's poem 'Tam o' Shanter'.

J R Hume 1976

Paterson states that the bridge is said to have been built by Bishop Kennedy, Chancellor of Scotland, who died in 1466. However, the first reference to the Bridge of Doon that Inglis could find in contemporary documents occurs in 1512; it is described as ruinous in 1593.

J Paterson 1852; H Inglis 1913

A high arched bridge showing traces of many repairs. The pathway over the bridge is paved with cobbles and is little used.

Visited by OS (JD) 12 December 1955

No change.

Visited by OS (JRL) 29 September 1980.

This bridge now carries a footpath over the River Doon to the S of Ayr. The river here forms the boundary between the parishes of Ayr (to the NE) and Maybole (to the SW).

The location assigned to this record defines the midpoint of the structure. The available map evidence suggests that it extends from NS c. 33228 17818 to NS c. 33242 17837.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 23 May 2006.