Road Bridge, Davidston, Newtyle

Heritage listing

Category C Date Added 03/08/2004 Local Authority Angus Planning Authority Angus Parish Newtyle NGR NO 31444 39556 Coordinates 331444, 739556 — Circa 1868, contractors Grainger and Grainger, Edinburgh. Single-span, round-headed arch road bridge over deep cutting of former Dundee and Newtyle Railway. Bull-faced squared rubble; rusticated voussoirs and intrados; smooth ashlar impost, parapet base and flat coping with chamfered edges. — A good example of railway bridge architecture on Scotland's first passenger railway. The Dundee and Newtyle Railway Act received Royal Assent in 1826, and work began on the line in 1827; the line opened in 1831. The line originally ran between Ward Road in Dundee and the village of Newtyle. It was unusual in that it incorporated 3 inclined planes that required stationary engines to pull the trains uphill; these were known as the Law Incline, the Balbuechly Incline and the Hatton Incline. The Hatton Incline was situated just to the SE of Newtyle. In 1867 the Newtyle Deviation Act was passed, allowing for a deviation to the line to avoid the Hatton Incline, and enabling the line to be used by locomotive engines throughout. Although the Davidstone bridge crosses the original line (the deviation began just to the north), it appears that until the deviation, there was no bridge at this site. While the deviation was being built, the Davidston bridge was also constructed to provide a safer way to cross over the line at this point. This section of the line was finally closed in 1958.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.