The powerfully-flowing rivers of Galloway were always a problem for travellers. By the middle of the 18th century there were still only a few bridges in existence.
In 1737, the Commissioners of the Stewartry of Kirkudbright, signed a contract worth a thousand pounds with William Beck, a mason, to build three bridges, the Bridge of Dee, Tongland old Bridge and Bridge-ford Bridge, over the Black Water of Dee.
The river Cree drains a huge area of wild hills and it had to be crossed when travelling across lower Galloway. The town now known as Creetown was originally named Ferrytown of Cree, which indicates, obviously, that there used to be a ferry there. A ford also existed and it is still marked on the modern Ordnance Survey map.
One of the region's first major bridges was built a little up-river. “The bridge at Newton-Stewart, which first connected Wigtownshire and the Stewartry of Kirkudbright was erected in 1745 at the joint expense of the two counties. It cost 750 pounds sterling. John Douglas, architect. This bridge was swept away by a flood, about the year 1810. The erection of the present bridge (see picture) across the Cree at Newton Stewart, was commenced in the summer of 1813, and built of native granite, chiefly from the moors of Minnigaff, at a cost of 6,000 pounds by Mr Kenneth Mathison of Inverness, who brought masons from Aberdeenshire for that purpose, they being more cunning in the art of splitting and squaring granite, than the craftsmen of Galloway were at that time. Mr Mathison subsequently built the bridge across the Ken at New Galloway, the bridge over the Black Water of Dee at Duchrae, the Pier at Stranraer, the Quay at Port Nessock, and the Harbour of Kirkudbright.
Source: The History of Galloway, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, volume II, published by John Nicholson, in Kirkudbright, in 1816, page 405.
www.scotlandssecretsouth.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment