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Blair Atholl, Tilt Viaduct
Railway Viaduct (19th Century)
Site Name Blair Atholl, Tilt Viaduct
Classification Railway Viaduct (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) River Tilt; Blair Atholl Viaduct; Tilt Railway Viaduct
Canmore ID 25779
Site Number NN86NE 19
NGR NN 87380 65186
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/25779
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Blair Atholl
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
NN86NE 19 87380 65186
NMRS REFERENCE:
Title [Tilt] Railway Viaduct.
Engineer: Joseph Mitchell 1861-1862.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
(Location cited as NN 873 652). Tilt Viaduct. This bridge was opened in 1863 by the Inverness and Perth Junction Rly, the engineer being Joseph Mitchell. It has a single lattice-truss iron span of 150 ft (45.7m) with castellated portals, and has been strengthened by the addition of steel bracing.
J R Hume 1977.
This viaduct was designed by Joseph Mitchell to carry the Inverness and Perth Junction Rly across the River Tilt and opened on 9 September 1863 at a cost of £6,500; it remains in use. It is of lattice girder construction with stone abutments, measures 255 ft (77.4m) in overall length and 40 ft (12.2m) in height. It comprises a single span of 150 ft (45.7m) and has a stone portal with mock fortifications (built in deference to the Duke of Argyll) at each end. Mitchell noted it as having been made 'somewhat more ornate than was otherwise necessary'.
M Smith 1994.
This viaduct carries the Perth (Stanley Junction) - Inverness main line of the former Highland Railway across the River Tilt to the E of Blair Atholl station (NN86NE 42). It remains in regular use by passenger traffic.
The location assigned to this record defines the centre of the span. The available map evidence indicates that it extends from NN 87371 65190 to NN 87400 65179.
The viaduct is depicted, but not noted, on the 1989 edition of the OS 1:10,000 map.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 20 February 2006.
Construction (September 1863)
Built across River Tilt on the line of the Inverness and OPerth Junction Railway line of the former Highland Railway.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
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)
Viaduct designed by Joseph Mitchell and built by Fairbairn Engineering. Similar to viaduct at Dalguise. At Blair Atholl the railway is carried 40 ft above the Tilt on a single wrought-iron lattice girder span of 150 ft of similar
construction to Dalguise Viaduct. The masonry abutments were built on timber rafts 3 ft below the bed of the river secured to timber piles. The contractor was Alexander Wilson.
Because of its vicinity to Blair Castle the bridge abutments were ‘made somewhat more ornate than was otherwise necessary’.
This use of iron was probably an economy measure on the Aberfeldy Branch [of the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway line of the Highland Railway] which operated, none too successfully in commercial terms, for a century, being closed in1965.
R Paxton and J Shipway
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
