Archaeology Notes

Event ID 713327

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/713327

NT50NW 29 52144 05972

Shankend Viaduct [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1982.

Shankend Viaduct, pre-1866. Striding structure of 15 tall arches whose landscape impact is far more formidable than its shabby close-up appearance. Redundant, 1963.

C A Strang 1994.

This viaduct formerly carried the Edinburgh-Carlisle main line of the North British Rly. (the 'Waverley route') across the Langside Burn, and was one of the numerous major engineering works on the route; the fifteen 35 ft (10.6m) spans were 60 ft (18.3m) high. It was built (by Ritson as contractor) with much delay, and was apparently opened to good traffic on 24 June 1862 and to passenger traffic on 1 July 1862 as part of the Riccarton Junction-Hawick section on the Border Union Rly. The Waverley route closed to regular passenger traffic on 6 January 1969.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 2 February 2006.

J Thomas 1969; G Daniels and L Dench 1980.

The large fifteen arch railway viaduct at Shankend was photographically surveyed by RCAHMS as part of the Waverley Line Project during May 2010. The viaduct has recenltly been renovated by Railtrack to ensure it remains a safe structure (2008-2009) and the scaffolding has now been removed. The viaduct was not entered as part of the survey.

Visited by RCAHMS (DE, AL), 19 May 2010