Logierait Viaduct
Location type
BridgeName and dates
Logierait Viaduct (1865-1965)Opened on the Aberfeldy Branch (Inverness and Perth Junction Railway).
Description
This viaduct, 'A' listed, should not to be confused with the now demolished Ballinluig Viaduct which crossed the River Tummel and was just to the east. This bridge crosses the River Tay. The bridges were very similar in appearance. Both were designed by Joseph Mitchell.
This viaduct notably appears in John Thomas' Forgotten Railways: Scotland book showing a VW camper van crossing the bridge on a page showing railways which became walkways.
This former single track railway viaduct on the closed Aberfeldy Branch is west of Ballinluig junction and station. The viaduct has two 137ft lattice spans and a 41ft plate girder span at either end. It crosses the River Tay. The bridge has turrets. It was built to a design by Joseph Mitchell, not dissimilar to other viaducts on the line built to be attractive for local landowners' pleasure. Ironwork was supplied by Sir William Fairbairn & Co. It opened in 1865.
Some time after closure of the railway, in 1965, the bridge transferred to the local estate and was used as a private road bridge for several years. The bridge provides a considerable shortcut from Logierait to Balnamuir.
There was doubt about the future of the bridge in the 1990s, the maintenance costs of the bridge being somewhat large for the estate to bear.
The viaduct is now in community ownership and bears a plaque reading:
The Tay Viaduct, Logierait.
First opened in 1865 by the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (later to become the Highland Railway), the Tay Viaduct passed into the hands of Kinnaird Estate in 1964 [sic] after the last train had crossed the bridge on 1st May of that year. In 1994 the estate gifted it to the local community which founded the Logierait Bridge Company (a company limit by guardantee with charitable status) to hold it.
In 2000/01 it was comprehensively restored at a cost of around £400,000 and re-opened as a community-owned road bridge.
The repainting of the viaduct is thought to be the first since the 1930s.
Tags
Viaduct River TayExternal links
Canmore site recordNLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
11/03/2020
Facilities
Listing: A
| Nearby stations Ballinluig Balnaguard Halt Guay Dalguise Grandtully Pitlochry Aberfeldy Dunkeld and Birnam Killiecrankie Rohallion Blair Atholl Black Island Platform Murthly Bankfoot Struan | Ballinluig Viaduct Ballinluig Turntable Moulinearn Crossing Dalguise Viaduct Tourist/other Dalguise House Dunfallandy Stone Blair Athol Distillery Eradour Distillery Pitlochry Festival Theatre Dundarach Foot Crossing Prospect Place Foot Crossing Pitlochry Fish Ladder Sunnybrae Cottage Loch Faskally Moulin Level Crossing |
| Location names in dark blue are on the same original line. | |
Avoiding a tollA toll was payable to John Stewart-Murray, the 7th Duke of Atholl, for the neighbouring ferry over the River Tummel. Pedestrians crossing the bridge were not unknown, avoiding the toll. |
