Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands

Date 2009

Event ID 962658

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/962658

Bonar Bridge (built 1973)

(Institute Civil Engineers Historic Engineering Works no. HEW 2550)

This bridge, the third at this site, carries the A836 road across the Kyle of Sutherland and was built in 1973. The bridge of 1892 (second on the site), which had become corroded at its springings, was replaced in 21 months by the present segmental steel tied arch of 340 ft span with a rise of 64 ft, designed by A. A. Cullen Wallace of Crouch & Hogg. Initially the arch was thought by some to intrude on the landscape, but its form is now generally recognised as elegant. The main contractor was William Tawse (North Region) Ltd, with structural steelwork by Redpath, Dorman Long (Contracting) Ltd. The contract sum was £405 000.

In a landscaped garden at the old east abutment, a cairn bears a marble tablet of 1815 from Telford’s bridge, a granite plaque from the 1893 bridge and plaques for the present bridge including one for a Steel Design Award in 1974.

R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.