Birkhall, R.Muick, Aberdeenshire
Location N 57°01’41.63”
W 3°04’21.87”
Span 18.3m (60 feet)
Width 0.9m (3 feet)
Built 1880, destroyed and rebuilt 2015.
Original bridge designed by John Harper (1833-1906)
Manufactured by Harper & Co, Albion Works, Aberdeen
Evidence that this was a Harper bridge: definite
The bridge of 1880. Note absence of transoms
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collection
This bridge was a copy of the one at Ravenscraig with its fence like pillars and small tensioners mounted to take the main and platform cables. Here the anchor cables did not have any adjustment. The deck was of woven wire. This design exemplifies the transition of John Harper from a fencer to a bridge builder, with the fence like pillars (without transoms) having integral tensioners a similar size to the fence strainers.
In 2016 during Storm Frank, the bridge was washed away. In the following months it was rebuilt using the original pillars as templates for new castings. The cable arrangement was upgraded to the style of later Harper bridges with main and deck cables passed across to common anchorages on the banks. Altogether a very sympathetic reconstruction.
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Other bridges in Scotland
Upper Glentanar, Aberdeenshire
Waterside of Aboyne, Aberdeenshire
Cromdale, Strathspey
Feugh Lodge, Aberdeenshir
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