Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands

Date 2007

Event ID 962747

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/962747

Wick Bridge

In 1665 Wick had a wooden bridge supported on stone pillars which was described at its refurbishment in 1776 as ‘with wooden planks upon eleven pillars’. As the first step in the development of Pultneytown for the British Fisheries Society [founded 1786], Telford designed a three-arched masonry bridge about 15 ft wide between parapets which was built about 100 yards downstream of the old bridge by George Burn from 1806–09 at a cost of £2000 including a contribution from the Highland Roads and Bridges Commission. It had spans of 48 ft, 60 ft and 40 ft and a parapet line and stringer curved to an arc of a large radius similar to, but smaller than, Lovat Bridge (5-21).

This bridge was in turn replaced in 1877 by the present wider and flatter road bridge of three segmental arches with similar spans built by Murdoch Paterson, with Daniel Miller of Wick as the contractor.

R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

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