Craigellachie Bridge

The bridge was in regular use until 1963, when it was closed for a major refurbishment. A plaque records the completion of this work in 1964. The side railings and spandrel members were replaced with new ironwork fabricated to match the originals. A 14 ton restriction was placed on the bridge at this point. This, along with the fact that the road to the north of the bridge takes a sharp right-angled turn to avoid a rock face, made it unsuitable for modern vehicles. Despite this, it carried foot and vehicle traffic across the River Spey until 1972, when its function was replaced by a reinforced concrete beam bridge built by Sir William Arrol & Co. which opened in 1970 and carries the A941…

The bridge has a single span of 150 ft and was revolutionary for its time, in that it used an extremely slender arch which was not possible using traditional masonry construction. The ironwork was cast at the Plas Kynaston iron foundry at Cefn Mawr, near Ruabon in Denbighshire by William Hazledine, who cast a number of Telford bridges. The ironwork was transported from the foundry through the Ellesmere Canal and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct then by sea to Speymouth, where it was loaded onto wagons and taken to the site. Testing in the 1960s revealed that the cast-iron had an unusually high tensile strength. This was probably specified by Telford because, unlike in traditional masonry arch bridges,…