Ken Bridge
| Ken Bridge | |
| Kirkcudbrightshire | |
|---|---|
 Ken Bridge | |
| Location | |
| Carrying: | A712 road |
| Crossing: | Water of Ken |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NX64077835 |
| Location: | 55°4’51"N, 4°7’51"W |
| Structure | |
| Length: | 360 feet |
| Material: | Granite ashlar |
| History | |
| Built 1820-1821 | |
| Architect: | John Rennie the Elder |
| Information | |
The Ken Bridge is a road bridge about half a mile north-east of New Galloway in Kirkcudbrightshire, which carries the A712 road over the Water of Ken towards Balmaclellan. Designed by John Rennie shortly before his death, it has been designated a Category A listed building.
History
Built between 1821 and 1822 to a design by Rennie,[1] it replaced an earlier bridge in the same location, also by Rennie, which was completed in 1811 but destroyed by flooding shortly afterwards.[2] Rennie died on 4 October 1821, before the construction of the bridge was complete.[3]
Description
The bridge is entirely made of granite ashlar, roughly finished for the most part, with polished granite surfaces on the inner faces of the parapet and on the soffits.[4] It curves along its length, and has a total span of 360 feet, with the widest central arch spanning approximately 100 feet. [4] Its piers are supported on the riverbed by round-nosed cutwaters, and the spandrels between the arches are decorated with pilasters.[4]
The bridge has been praised for its aesthetic qualities. Architectural historian John Gifford, writing in the Dumfries and Galloway volume of the Pevsner Architectural Guides series, described it as a "long elegant curve of granite ashlar",[5] and John R. Hume, the former chief inspector of historic buildings for Historic Scotland, wrote that it was the "most elegant of Rennie's bridges in the South-West... ...five graded segmental arches leap the Ken's floodplain in a long, low streamlined curve."[6]
The bridge now carries the A712 road towards Balmaclellan.[2] It was designated a Category A listed building in 1971.[4]
References
- ↑ DSA Ken Bridge.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 RCAHMS record of Ken Bridge
- ↑ DSA John Rennie.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Ken Bridge (Category A) - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
- ↑ Gifford 1996, p. 468.
- ↑ Hume 2000, p. 147.
- Gifford, John (1996). The Buildings of Scotland:Dumfries and Galloway. London: Penguin. ISBN 0140-71067-1.
- "Ken Bridge". http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/building_full.php?id=421933.
- "John Rennie". http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=406293.
- Hume, John R (2000). Dumfries and Galloway: An Illustrated Architectural Guide. The Rutland Press. ISBN 1 873 190 344.