Dalguise Viaduct

About

The Dalguise Viaduct is a lattice girder viaduct in Dalguise, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It carries the Highland Main Line railway across the River Tay. Built in 1863, it was designed by Joseph Mitchell, for the then-new Inverness and Perth Junction Railway.

A Category A listed structure, it stands about 0.44 miles (0.71 km) north of the now-disused Dalguise railway station, and about 6 miles (10 km) north of Dunkeld. The viaduct has two spans; the southern one being 210 feet (64 m), the northern 141 feet (43 m). The girders are 16 ft (4.9 m) high, and 67 ft (20 m) above the bed of the river.

The ironwork was supplied by Sir William Fairbairn & Sons, of Manchester. The abutments and central piers are stone, with ornamental castellations on top, to appease the Duke of Atholl. The lattice girder design was a development of the American timber trusses patented by Ithiel Town in 1820, but constructed using wrought iron.

More recently, additional diagonal bracing has been added to the top chords of the trusses, to improve lateral stability. Similar viaducts were built by Fairbairn at Blair Atholl carrying the Highland Main Line over the River Tilt, and at Logierait over the Tay, now used...