Torness Bridge

Falls below the bridge

Torness Bridge carries the B862 over the River Farigaig in the tiny settlement of Torness. The current bridge is a fairly common single span concrete slab structure carrying a two lane road with pavements between metal railings. It probably dates from the 1970s when the road was still the A862, as the old bridge is still shown on the 1967 OS One Inch map.

Old Bridge

Although nothing obvious survives of the previous bridge here, it is likely that it was a single stone arch dating from the 18th or 19th century. The road here was originally built by General Wade as a military road in the 1720s, and while he built very few bridges on his roads, his successor, Major Caulfeild replaced many of the original fords with bridges. Further work was probably done to this stretch of road in the 1810s by Thomas Telford as part of his commission on Highland Roads and Bridges. It is therefore most probable that the old bridge was built under the direction of one of these men.

The bridge stood a short distance to the south, more or less at right angles to the new bridge. The northern approach can still be traced across the fields to the north, before disappearing into a bank of gorse. It then reappears as part of the driveway that leads off to the north of the new bridge, however, an autumn visit showed the river banks were too overgrown to identify any remains of the old bridge itself. Mapping shows that it stood directly opposite the parking bay in front of the cottages at the junction - this bay is probably part of the bend that turned the road onto the bridge from the south.