Clydesholm Bridge

Heritage listing

Category A Date Added 12/01/1971 Local Authority South Lanarkshire Planning Authority South Lanarkshire Burgh Lanark NGR NS 86872 43918 Coordinates 286872, 643918 — John Lockhart of Birkenhead, Lanark, 1696-99. 3-span bridge with large semicircular arches and massive piers with triangular cutwaters, extended up to form pedestrian refuges to both upstream and downstream sides. Squared rubble (more regularly sized blocks to parapet). Narrow voussoirs. Wing walls stepped outwards at either end. Carriageway level raised in 20th century necessitating raised parapet. — B-Group with 'Mousemill Road, Kirkfieldbank, Old Bridgend'. Clydesholm Bridge is of outstanding importance not only as one of the few surviving late 17th century bridges in Scotland but also as the oldest surviving crossing of the River Clyde. It is also significant because it was one of the first bridges to be built without ribs. The massive piers with their triangular cutwaters carried up to provide pedestrian refuges and the semi-circular arches are typical of the period. The bridge lay on the main road from Carlisle to Glasgow, via Hamilton, until Thomas Telford's Glasgow-Carlisle road was completed in the early 1820s. Prior to its erection the Clyde had to be crossed by means of the ferry-boat, or forded above the islands lying just to the S up-river from this point. The bridge continued to carry main road traffic until 1956 when a new concrete bride was erected to the N. It is now used as a footbridge only. The Burgh of Lanark first took steps to erect a bridge over the Clyde at Clydesholm in 1649. They approached the Scottish Parliament in March of that year to ask permission to collect a voluntary contribution from all shires, presbyteries and parishes in the kingdom. Although Parliament granted this, t

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.