Monument record MHG3405 - Lovat Bridge

For adjacent pillbox, see NH54SW 65.

(Location cited as NH 517 450). Lovat Bridge, Beauly. Built 1811-14 by engineer Thomas Telford and partly rebuilt after a flood in 1892. A fine 4-span, dressed-stone bridge, with segmental arches and triangular cutwaters. The carriageway has been built up at both ends to fl;atten the hump.
J R Hume 1977.

This bridge was built in 1811-14 by Thomas Telford (engineer) and George Burns (contractor) as a major element in the former's northern Scottish roadbuilding programme. It was originally planned to be a wooden bridge of American pitchpine but this proposal was abandoned as there was no government guarantee of repair funding. It was eventually built in stone at a cost of ?8,800 and with some hindrance to the passage of floating logs, but was damaged in the floods of 1829 and had to be partly rebuilt by Mitchell. The roadway has been lessened at each end to lessen the hump.
This bridge is the largest in the area with spans of 40ft (12.2m), 50ft (15.2m), 60ft (18.3m), 50ft (15.2m) and 40ft (12.2m) over 470ft (143.3m) of waterway. It is built of pleasantly-coloured dressed sandstone and has semi-hexagonal piers which become refuges at parapet level except for those at the ends which are solid. The parapet is 32ins (0.8m) high with a curving coping stone. There is a double string course and each arch is outlined with an archivolt which continues across the cutwater tops; these are triangular and faced with thin metal strips. The voussoirs are almost square and the spandrels not large for such a bridge.
G Nelson 1990.

This bridge carries the A9 public road over the River Beauly, which here forms the boundary between the parishes of Kirkhill and Kilmorack.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 November 1998.



Architect: Thos. Telford (1803 - 21)