Kervaig River, Road Bridge
Road Bridge (19th Century)
Site Name Kervaig River, Road Bridge
Classification Road Bridge (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Cape Wrath
Canmore ID 291045
Site Number NC27SE 15
NGR NC 28859 71739
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/291045
- Council Highland
- Parish Durness
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
Field Visit (30 July 2002)
Single arch stone bridge carrying the minor road from Daill to Cape Wrath over the Kervaig River. Tubular metal guard rail on parapets.
Visited by RCAHMS (MKO), 30 July 2002.
Measured Survey (13 August 2008)
RCAHMS surveyed the bridge over Kervaig River, Cape Wrath on 13 August 2008 with plane table and tape producing a ground plan and an elevation at a scale of 1:100.
Field Visit (2008)
NC27SE 15 28859 71730
This stone bridge carries the public road from the ferry point on the Kyle of Durness (NC 3707 6602) to the lighthouse (NC27SE 3.00) at Cape Wrath over the Kearvaig River. Constructed in 1828 of locally quarried stone and lime mortar (Stevenson 1828), the bridge comprises a single arch, measuring 9.6m in width by 3.3m in height, which rests on a squared stone abutment 2.3m in height on the NE of the river and a rock outcrop on the SW. The abutment on the NE extends beyond the width of the upper part of the bridge by up to 0.2m on each side. This has been done to enable the incorporation of integrated battered buttresses, the purpose of which was probably to provide additional stability. On the SW side of the stream the footings of the buttresses are obscured by soil that has been back-filled over them, but they are presumably founded on bedrock.
At road-level the bridge originally measured no more than about 2.1m in width between parapets at least 1.1m in height and rounded and slightly splayed at both ends. However, the width of the carriageway has since been increased to 2.3m by removing the parapets along the narrowest part of the bridge and replacing them with metal post-and-wire fences. The splayed parapet terminals survive intact except for that at the SW end of the NW side, which has been completely removed. Surface water has been directed off the carriageway into the river below via drains situated just beneath the base of the parapets. Two drains, measuring no more that 0.2m square, are visible in the NW face of the bridge, but only one is visible in the SE face.
(CWTC08 146)
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, JH) 4 August 2008.
