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Killin, Railway Viaduct
Railway Viaduct (19th Century)
Site Name Killin, Railway Viaduct
Classification Railway Viaduct (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) River Dochart; Killin Viaduct; Kinnell House Policies
Canmore ID 24207
Site Number NN53SE 29
NGR NN 57435 32756
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/24207
- Council Stirling
- Parish Killin
- Former Region Central
- Former District Stirling
- Former County Perthshire
NN53SE 29 57435 32756
Not to be confused with the bridge carrying the railway over the River Lochay (at NN 57520 33431), for which see NN53SE 89.
For nearby Killin Station (NN 57487 33266), see NN53SE 40.
Viaduct [NAT]
OS (GIS) AIB, May 2006.
This bridge crosses the River Dochart E of the village of Killin; it remains in place, and is walkable but disused. Built in 1885 by contractor John Best, it comprises five concrete arches on masonry piers.
This branch line opened on 1 April 1886. The portion of the line between Killin and Killin Junction stations (NN53SE 40 and NN52NW 20, respectively) closed to regular passenger traffic on 28 September 1965.
G Daniels and L Dench 1980; C E J Fryer 1989.
This viaduct formerly carried the Killin (Loch Tay) branch of the Caledonian Rly over the River Dochart to the E of Killin village (NN53SE 37). It crosses the river a short distance above the island of Innis Buidhe and some way above the debouchment of the river into the SW end of Loch Tay.
The location assigned to this record depicts the midpoint of the structure. The available map evidence suggests that it extends from NN c. 57439 32787 to NN c. 57431 32716.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 23 May 2006.
Publication Account
The Killin Railway joining Loch Tay to the Callander & Oban Railway at Killin Junction was built from 1883–85 and is now disused and walkable. It crossed the Dochart on this 458 skew, mass concrete and masonry viaduct. The piers, spandrels and parapets are of masonry and the arch-rings of concrete. Completed in 1885, the structure has a claim to be Scotland’s earliest concrete viaduct. Its
five mass concrete arches, which are 2 ft thick, span 30 ft on the square and 42 ft 5 in. on the skew.
The arches were each built in a day, their 2 ft thickness being built up in 6 in. layers. The Board of Trade inspector asked for a core to be cut from one of the rings as proof of its homogeneity. A masonry arch of this thickness would
normally have taken about 20 minutes to core but, in this time, much to the contractor’s satisfaction, the core had penetrated only 7 in. The concrete is a 1 to 5 mix of cement and crushed rock. The engineer was John Strain and the contractor, John Best (MacDonald of Skye, the original contractor for line, went bankrupt before the viaduct was completed).
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007b
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
