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Crinan Canal, Oakfield Swing Bridge
Swing Bridge (19th Century)
Site Name Crinan Canal, Oakfield Swing Bridge
Classification Swing Bridge (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Lochgilphead; Oakfield Bridge
Canmore ID 39392
Site Number NR88NE 24.01
NGR NR 85616 87964
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/39392
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish South Knapdale
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR88NE 24.01 8561 8796 [Formerly entered as LIN 541]
Oakfield Bridge (Swing) [NAT]
OS 1:10,000 map, 1981.
For list of related sites, see NR88NE 24.00 Crinan Canal.
For Oakfield Bridge House (associated bridge keeper's cottage, adjacent to SE), see NR88NE 79.
Bridge removed from list of scheduled monuments, former number 4257.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 3 September 1996.
The oldest surviving structure on the canal at the date of survey was this swing-bridge at Oakfield, which according to the maker's plate was built by P and W MacLellan at Clutha Iron Works, Glasgow, in 1871.
RCAHMS 1992.
This bridge is marked as Oakfield Bridge on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1873, sheet clx) and on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1900, sheet clxSE). It is marked as Oakfield Bridge (Swing) on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1981) and on the OS 1:10000 raster map (ND).
Information from RCAHMS (MD), 28 June 2001.
This bridge carries a private road over the Crinan Canal (NR88NE 24.00/LIN 541) on the W side of Lochgilphead (NR88NE 81) and just SW of the junction of the A83 (T) and A817 (T) public roads.
The location assigned to this record defines the centre of the bridge's short span.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 1 June 2006.
Construction (1877)
This swing bridge (P and W Maclellan , Clutha Works, Glasgow, 1877) replaced an earlier bridge of c.1817.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007b
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
Publication Account (2007)
This bridge provided access to Oakfield House then belonging to Lochgilphead landowner John MacNeill. It is a swing bridge, pivoted on the west bank, and bears the inscription ‘P. & W. MACLELLAN, Clutha Works, 1877’. It replaced an earlier bridge, possibly one of Gibb’s iron bridges of 1817, and spans 35 ft from the pivot to the far bank and is 11 ft wide.
The timber deck is carried on hogbacked iron plategirders with a maximum depth of 16 in. The manually operated swing mechanism is worked from the west bank, which allowed MacNeill to isolate his house if he so wished.
R Paxton and Jim Shipway 2007b
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
