The Erskine Bridge crosses the River Clyde near the villages of Erskine to the south and Old Kilpatrick to the north, linking Renfrewshire to West Dunbartonshire. This bridge extends the A898 road from the M8 motorway on the south to the A82 on the north. Built between 1967 and 1971 by Freeman Fox, it was opened by HRH The Princess Royal on 2nd July, 1971. The Erskine Ferry service just upstream ceased when the bridge opened. Tolls were scrapped on the bridge on 31st March 2006.
This box girder bridge with cable stays is 524m (1720 feet) in length, not including the two approach spans of 68m (224 feet) each. The masts of the main span are 38m (125 feet) high, while the steelwork weighs some 11,000 tons and runs over 1310m (4300 feet). On 4th of August 1996 an oil platform collided with the deck of the bridge while being towed down the River Clyde. It became stuck causing some serious damage to the Bridge. The error occurred due to the engineers forgetting to account for the tidal effect on the river! The estimated losses and damages amounted to a total of £4.25 million.
Due to the very nice Mar Hall hotel deciding to build a golf course on top of the original cache location, the cache has had to be moved and can now be found by working out the following:
The final cache co-ordinates are at N55°55.abc W004°27.def.
Go to the listed co-ordinates on the north west side of the bridge. There is a plaque commemorating the opening of the bridge. On the thick upright to the right high up is a number with a letter on a white background:
(This number x 3) - 27 = abc
(This number x 19) + 19 = def
If the north/west footpath is closed then the same number can be found on the south/east footpath, find the plaque in the centre and look on the pillar to the left for the number '??A'.
Have fun!
Parking available at N55°54.798 W004°28.344 for bridge walk and at N55°55.031 W004°27.725 for the final cache.