Glenshee Bridge

The Old Bridge

The historic bridge at Spittal of Glenshee was constructed as part of the Blairgowrie to Braemar Military Road. This route was built by Major Caulfeild, and seems to have taken a surprisingly long time to construct, as work is recorded as starting in 1749 and yet was not completed until 1763. The bridge over the Shee Water is about half way, so it seems reasonable to suggest it was constructed in the mid to late 1750s.

The bridge itself has a significant humpback to lift the roadway over the arch that spans the river, although it appears that the gradient has been eased over the years when the road has been re-surfaced, with the parapets much taller in the middle than at either end! This has been partially rectified by the addition of metal railings to maintain a constant height.

In the final years before Spittal was bypassed, the old bridge was controlled by traffic lights, with the stop lines still visible on the road at either end. As the roadway across the bridge is a mere 12foot, this seems to have been a very sensible precaution on a busy road!

The New Bridge

The A93 is an important north-south route through the Cairngorm Mountains, and as such the old narrow bridge is clearly not fit for modern traffic levels. The bypass, providing a new crossing of the Shee Water was apparently constructed in the 1960s, and provides a much faster route without the sharp bends or hump-backed bridge. The new bridge is a fairly typical concrete structure for the time, crossing the river in a single span with an S2 carriageway above.