Publication Account

Date 2007

Event ID 962776

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/962776

Oldhall Bridge

Two miles west of Greystones Bridge, at Watten on the same road, is Oldhall Bridge over a burn, [Burn of Dunn] built from 1815–19 under Telford’s general direction and now bypassed and deteriorating. It consists of a single semicircular arch about 16 ftwide and 24 ft high with an arch-ring of Caithness flagstones about 2 ft deep, paved invert, random rubble spandrels and approach retaining walls in similar stone. The roadway is 18 ft wide.

Both [this and Greystones Bridge] were erected as part of the improvement of the Thurso road. The surveyor was H. Fulton and the contractor J. Traill Esq. and others. Great difficulty was experienced in letting a contract for this 20 mile length of road which, at the then large sum of £13 365, cost about 30% more than the estimate.

R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

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