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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 929427
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/929427
Brig o’ Balgownie, Aberdeen
This fine example of early Scottish bridge building over the Don is believed to have been built ca.1320 by Richard Cementarius, a local mason and the first recorded Provost of Aberdeen. It is a single span Gothic pointed arch with a span of 6934 ft, one of the largest of its kind in Britain at the time, with a roadway 11 ft wide between parapets. The arch is constructed of sandstone and the spandrels and parapet walls are mainly of granite.
Although the bridge formed an important element in the road system northward from Aberdeen it was poorly maintained after the Reformation. A plaque on the bridge states that it was almost totally rebuilt by the Town Council in 1605. In 1605 Alexander Hay executed a Charter of Mortification
for its maintenance which later became the Bridge of Don Fund. This fund not only financed major repairs to the bridge in the 17th and 19th centuries, but also provided capital for the construction of a number of other bridges in north-east Scotland.
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
