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Bannockburn, New Road, Bridge
Road Bridge (19th Century)
Site Name Bannockburn, New Road, Bridge
Classification Road Bridge (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Bannock Burn; New Road Bridge
Canmore ID 222053
Site Number NS89SW 104
NGR NS 80944 90470
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/222053
- Council Stirling
- Parish St Ninians
- Former Region Central
- Former District Stirling
- Former County Stirlingshire
NS89SW 104 80944 90470
Not to be confused with (predecessor) Bannockburn, Old Town, Old Bridge (NS 80761 90446), for which see NS89SW 15.
Architect: Thomas Telford, 1819.
EXTERNAL REFERENCE: SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE
Building of the New Bridge
Thomas McMicking mentions that in 1819 while he was Factor at Polmaise he was given the post of Superintendent of the building of the Bridge.
Letter from Thomas McMicking to John Murray.
1839 GD 189/2/834
(Undated) information in NMRS.
This bridge carries the A9(T) public road over the Bannock Burn within the area of Bannockburn village (NS89SW 32). It is depicted, but not noted, on the 1979 edition of the OS 1:10,000 map.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 2 June 2006.
Project (2007)
This project was undertaken to input site information listed in 'Civil engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' by R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Publication Account (2007)
Bannockburn Bridge, which carries the A9 road 40 ft over the Bannock Burn about two miles south-east of Stirling, has a span of 24 ft and is of unusual character. According to Southey it was designed by Telford, whose solution for preventing inward earth-pressure movement of the tall abutments by means of curved masonry struts is almost playful, but nevertheless effective. The iron beam above the top arch formed part of a later roadway widening to its present 38 ft between parapets.
The bridge was being built when it was visited by Telford and Southey in 1819. Southey wrote, ‘Thro’ Falkirk we passed under [the Forth & Clyde Canal at Camelon] by an arch so dangerously low that it might easily prove fatal to a traveller on the outside of a stage coach. A new road is making near Stirling [at Bannockburn] with a bridge which is one of Mr Telford’s works and has a huge circle over the single arch . . . the appearance is singular and striking.’
The Camelon underpass referred to by Southey and shown on Smeaton’s drawing as 16 ft wide by 11 ft high
with 2 ft arch rise was briefly revealed during a lock extension for the Millennium Link Canal Regeneration
(see Paxton and Shipway, 2007, 324). It served for at least four decades before being replaced, first by a bascule bridge and later by a swing bridge.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
