Big Water of Fleet Viaduct
The largest viaduct on the Portpatrick & Wigtownshire Joint Railway, also known as the Port Road, which linked the Irish ferries at Stranraer with Dumfries and English destinations.
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Gatehouse of Fleet Station,
Dromore,
Dumfries & Galloway
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Opened in 1861, it measures 900ft [274.4m] in length, and has a maximum height of 70ft [21.3m]. Built of granite, with brick arches, it has twenty spans of 36ft [11m] each; the seven at the East end were built on a curve and the others on a straight alignment. The viaduct was a continual source of trouble: it underwent heavy repair as early as 1912, and each pier was encased in brickwork from 1927 onwards, this task being completed in 1945.
Trains last ran in 1965, and its future was in recurrent doubt, the Little Water of Fleet one having long ago been blown up. Now owned by Sustrans, and Grade B-listed.
Featured in the Hitchcock film version of The 39 Steps and in the film of Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers.
Photos: © Ian Taylor - geograph.org.uk/p/6381023; © G Laird - geograph.org.uk/p/5471929; © Christopher Hall - geograph.org.uk/p/4646558
With an imposing backdrop in front of inland cliffs called the Clints of Dromore, a little east of Gatehouse of Fleet Station, six miles north of the village of that name on the B796.
Fryer, C E J. (1991) The Portpatrick and Wigtownshire railways, Oakwood Library of Railway History series, no. OL81. Headington, Oxford. Page(s): 134 pls. pp. 136, 137, fig. p. 137 RCAHMS Shelf Number: J.6.71. FRY
Gifford, J. (1996) Dumfries and Galloway, The Buildings of Scotland series. London. Page(s): 317 RCAHMS Shelf Number: Quick
Hume, J R. (1976) The industrial archaeology of Scotland, 1, Lowlands and Borders. London. Page(s): 153 RCAHMS Shelf Number: J.4.11.HUM
Hume, J R. (2000) Dumfries and Galloway: an illustrated architectural guide. [Edinburgh]. Page(s): 173 pl. p. 173 RCAHMS Shelf Number: D.3.DUM
Paxton and Shipway, R and J. (2007) Civil engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders. London. Page(s): 8-9 RCAHMS Shelf Number: J.5.41.PAX
Smith, D L. (1969) The little railways of South-West Scotland. Newton Abbot. Page(s): 32, 134 pl. p. 17
Smith, M. (1994) British railway bridges and viaducts. Shepperton. Page(s): 77-9
Swann, Andrew. The Port Road : https://rail-books.co.uk/products/the-port-road-9781911038214