Policies 6 – Drumlanrig Bridge TB Hotel (Premium)
Category B Listed structure
The Technical and Historical stuff
Probably late medieval, but altered. Road bridge; 2 segmental arches high above River Nith. Repaired (east side of central pier and "ledges") March-August 1710 by William Lukup, mason, Thornhill; further repairs 1747. Roadway widened on continuous corbel tables 1860 by Charles Howitt of Drumlanrig estate, parapets, spandrels and wide approaches also built
then. Pink ashlar. Narrow arches on wide abutments and massive central pier, latter with pointed cutwater either side splayed below parapet; coped parapets; flat roadway.
Cast-iron lion mask drainage spouts on south end of west abutment.
Rae (writing circa 1740) says that Lukup agreed to repair the bridge in 1708, but the accounts are dated 1710; the repairs were necessitated by the timber foundations of that part having been washed away some 40 years earlier - Duke William had proposed a new bridge (by Robert Mylne) at the end of Drumlanrig north avenue and had refused to repair this bridge. Rae also considered this bridge "may well be ...amongst the monuments of antiquity.....". Shown on view by John Clerk of Eldin, circa 1760.
Commissioners of Supply agreed (1823) to fund a bridge at Glenarlie on condition that the Duke of Buccleuch "pledge..... to free the county of the expense of rebuilding or repairing the bridge at Drumlanrig for all time....."; in 1850, the commissioners declared it no longer useful or necessary ......... abandoned". Robert Grierson, Edinburgh, supplied iron for the bridge (bill 30.5.1710) presumably for the "in-band clasps" Lukup used. 1860 work exposed upper face of arches, which resembled "well-worn steps". B group with Drumlanrig Bridge Cottage.
This cache is recommended for trackables – eminently suitable as a drive by cache and dash. Most of the Drumlanrig caches are not suited for trackables.
Cache placed with permission from The Queensbury Estate.