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Craigellachie Bridge: Thomas Telford鈥檚 marvel of the industrial revolution, hidden in a quiet corner of the Scottish Highlands

14 June 2018

The Craigellachie Bridge was built more than 200 years ago. The beautiful 150ft (46m) bridge crosses the River Spey in the north east of Scotland, a short distance south of Elgin. Finished in 1814, it’s another marvel from the Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford.

It’s the earliest known survivor of something called a cast-iron spandrel-lattice-braced bridge, a design Telford developed for wide and deep river crossings. He had it cast in Wales, put on barges and the taken round the north of Scotland before arriving into Spey Bay.

He didn’t use the Caledonian Canal — because he hadn’t finished building it yet!

Rumour has it that the bridge was built for somewhere else. At its north end is a tight right turn, which must have been a nightmare for the whisky lorries and the buses until the replacement bridge on the A95 was opened in 1972.

Craigellachie Bridge is still in use as a footbridge 200 years later, but time has taken its toll.

Folk come here from all over the world to visit the bridge. There are no signs, but they still find it.

Brenda Cooper, Friends of Craigellachie Bridge

Brenda Cooper belongs to a group dedicated to ensuring its survival.

“People around here are very passionate about the bridge. It’s a local icon.

“Folk visit from all over the world; there are no signs, but they still find it.”

The bridge might need as much as £500,000 worth of work done to it, but no one knows who actually owns it. That is a major problem, because if the owner cannot be traced then the charity can’t apply for funding.

The group to which Brenda belongs maintains the approaches to the bridge, but they aren’t allowed to do anything on the bridge itself.

(friendsofcraigellachiebridge.org)

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