Harper Bridges

Blairgowrie, R. Ericht 1886


Craighall, Blairgowrie, 1896
We visited the site of this bridge at Craighall, in August 2006 (NO174483). The wife of the present laird, a descendant of the purchaser, kindly directed us to the site. The R. Ericht descends through a steep gorge incised into the Old Red Sandstone conglomerate, the cliffs of which are clearly seen on the photograph. Access was by following the east bank fishermen's path upstream from a lower reach. Fortunately, the river was low, otherwise it might not have been possible. The site is just below the castle. The first thing we saw were two tension boxes lying in the sand at the edge of the river. Looking up, there was the deck and cables of the bridge, festooned down the cliff from its surviving attachment 30 feet above us. The two tension boxes were lying quite close together and may have fallen from above, or, more likely, had been originally from the west main cables. The assumption was that the west pylons had failed.

We then made our way downstream to a point that allowed us to gain the top of the cliff. We then found the east end of the site. There was a large timber pylon lying on the ground with one main cable attached (looking in good condition) with a tension box. A bank anchorage cable could be distinguished associated with the same pylon. A second east end pylon couldn't be seen.

The intriguing thing was the date of this bridge - 1896, according to the archive photograph. This bridge was of the basic design of much earlier date - similar to the original Monymusk bridge of 1879, and others. Pine tree pylons didn't extend much beyond 1887 (Nairn and Feugh) and they were mostly converted to steel 'I' beam girders as the wood deteriorated.