Scottish Bridges: 43. Cambus O' May Bridge (revisited)

From Craigmin Bridge, we drove south to Deeside, before heading west to Braemar. The Dee Valley is particularly rich in fine bridges.

Our first stop was at the Cambus O'May bridge, which I discussed here in February, with a couple of old photographs. It was nice to have an opportunity to visit it again, and look at it more thoroughly.

You can find the basic facts at the February post, so I'll try not to repeat myself too much. It's a bridge by the firm of  James Abernethy & Co., dating from 1905, as was the bridge at Aberlour which we had visited the previous day.

The bridge was substantially rebuilt in 1988, with the original riveted deck trusses replaced in welded steel, and a staircase at the north end removed. The riveted lattice towers seem to be unaltered.

The towers sit slightly outside the bridge deck, so that the main cables are slightly off vertical. One consequence of this is that the hangers are also slightly inclined. However, where they are fixed into the deck, they are bolted vertically through the top flange of the parapet trusses. The result is that the hangers are slightly curved, which I can't imagine does them any good.

The replacement of the deck with welded trusses hasn't done the bridge any harm visually, in my view.

Further information:

• Google maps / Bing maps
• Structurae
• British Listed Buildings
• RCAHMS
• Scotland's Places
• Scottish Highland Bridges
• Harper Bridges
• Aberdeenshire SMR
• Bridgemeister
• Scottish Suspension Bridges (Hume, Scottish Archaeological Forum Vol. 8, 1977)
• The National Trust Book of Bridges (Richards, 1984)
• Highland Bridges (Nelson, 1990)
• Civil Engineering Heritage: Scotland Highlands and Islands (Paxton and Shipway, 2007)
• An Encyclopaedia of Britain's Bridges (McFetrich, 2010)