Bridge of Scuan, bridge, 350m NNE of Scuan

Heritage listing

Date Added 05/08/1953 Last Date Amended 20/01/2004 Type Secular: bridge Local Authority Orkney Islands Parish Birsay And Harray NGR HY 32073 18841 Coordinates 332073, 1018841 — The monument comprises a stone-built bridge, its approaches and a date-inscribed stone. The monument was first scheduled in 1953, but the documentation neither locates the bridge correctly nor describes the scheduled area with sufficient precision to protect all of the monument: the present rescheduling rectifies this. The monument comprises the crossing of an ancient track or roadway over a westward-flowing burn and consists of three components: a bridge; splayed, crudely revetted, approaches on either side of the burn; and a dressed stone, inscribed with the date 1694, forming part of the bridge construction. The bridge, measuring approximately 7.5m by 3.2m, spans the burn in two vaults supported by a central pier. On the eastern side, the bridge is of clapper construction; the earthen roadway of the bridge is supported by horizontal slabs resting on pillars of horizontally bedded masonry that form the abutments and the central pier. On its western side, the bridge consists of a double arch, providing clearance to a maximum height of approximately 0.6m above the burn bed. Each arch springs from the rubble-supported burn bank. The arches abut the central pier with the point of contact being in each case, the angled surface of a single, triangular block, which forms the core of the pier. The masonry above the arches is horizontally bedded. It is clear from the point of contact between these two constructions that the western arches are primary. In general the masonry is rough-hewn and lacks mortar. The approaches on both sides of the bridge are much disturbed by cattle but survive as converging l

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.