Rustic Bridge 5, Arniston House

Heritage listing

Category B Date Added 29/03/1999 Local Authority Midlothian Planning Authority Midlothian Parish Carrington NGR NT 33128 61163 Coordinates 333128, 661163 — Earlier 19th century, single span, segmental-arched bridge over River South Esk to S of Shank Garden. Pink sandstone rubble with rubble coped parapet. Polished arch-ring flanked by droved pilasters with impost detail; splayed wing walls. Tooled panel with Latin inscription to exterior wall of W parapet; E parapet partly fallen down. — In addition to designing Arniston House (see separate listing, Borthwick Parish) William Adam was taken on in 1726, under Robert Dunda, 3rd Lord Arniston (1685-1753), to layout the grounds. Adam's arrangement (which seems to have been carried out to the south) mixed the formal with the informal. From the 1750's there was long period of improvement, principally involving the informalising of the grounds. John Adam, who continued with work on the house and grounds where his father had stopped, was responsible for some of the changes, as was Thomas White who began work at Arniston in 1791. A variety of small moss-covered rustic bridges cross the Purvies Hill Burn (to the S of Arniston House), a tributary to the River South Esk (which runs to the W of Arniston) the bridges over which are larger and less rustic. This particular bridge, which is the northernmost Arniston Estate bridge over the River South Esk, is relatively simple, only ornamented by a panel with a Latin inscription on the N parapet, similar to that on Horace's Bridge to the S (see separate listing in Temple Parish).

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.