Tongland Bridge

Today's the day ....................... to carry the load

This is the bridge that carries the road over the River Dee at Tongland, near Kirkcudbright - and not far from our house.

It was designed by the famous engineer, Thomas Telford, in 1803, when he was commissioned to produce a scheme for a new bridge to improve the main road from Carlisle to Portpatrick in the west.  The rustic stonework and gothic styling was the result of the collaboration between Telford and Alexander Nasmyth, a renowned Scottish landscape painter.

And as you can see in the extra, it still looks pretty much the same today as it ever did.  The landscape around it has changed a bit.  When the photograph in extras was taken, probably in the late 1800s, boats could still come up the Dee to this point.  There was a pier here where cargo, like these logs, could be loaded or unloaded.  It would have been a hive of activity.

It was all pretty peaceful today, in the late afternoon sunshine ...................