Glenesk viaduct, Midlothian
A graceful single-arch viaduct built for the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway that today carries the Borders Railway across the North Esk.
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Glenarch House, Dalkeith
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Consists of an 18.3m high, single semicircular, ashlar masonry arch, with a span of 19.8m and an original width of 4.5m between parapets. It is embellished with archivolts (moulding around the arch), tapering pilasters and extensive curved wing walls Paxton considers that the elevation of the bridge is reminiscent of the better of the bridges dating from the Highland Roads era in Scotland, many of which were constructed under Telford’s direction in the first three decades of the 19th century. In 1845, the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway was bought by North British Railway and upgraded for locomotive use. The width of the track gauge was increased to 1.435m under the direction of its engineer John Miller (1805-83). The line was re-opened in July 1847 and connected to Central Station at Waverley in Edinburgh via Portobello. At that time, the bridge deck had been widened to accommodate double tracks. A steel truss was inserted in the arch in 1968 to protect it against the possibility of subsidence from local coal mining. Tracks lifted after last freight train ran in 1972. Conservation work was carried out in 1993, when the bridge was turned over to pedestrian and cycle use, by the Edinburgh Green Belt Trust with a grant from the Railway Heritage Trust. The steel truss was removed, together with cantilevered footways that had probably been added by John Miller as part of the 1847 works. The bridge was heritage listed as Category B in January 1971 and upgraded to Category A in January 1994. Reopened 2015 with a single track to carry trains of the Borders Railway. |
walk from Dalkeith Town Centre
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• Lewin
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• Leslie James, A Chronology of the Construction of Britain's Railways, 1778 - 1855, Ian Allan Limited, Shepperton, 1983, ISBN 0 7110 1277 6
• Ordnance Survey, One-inch Survey, Sheet 32, "Edinburgh", published 1857; and 25-inch mapping: Edinburghshire, Sheet 014.07 etc, surveyed 1892
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• Transport Scotland, Borders Railway, at
• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland: Braid Burn Railway Bridge
• Robertson, quoting Bremner
From Wikipedia