Seven magnificent bridges
For pontists – lovers of bridges – Britain has a cornucopia of delights across its infinitely varied countryside. Neil Coates picks the finest crossings
Nationwide
1 CAUSEY ARCH Co Durham
Secreted away in secluded woodland is the planet’s oldest surviving railway bridge, leaping 30m across the gauge of Causey Burn. It once formed part of an ingenious network of wagonways used to transport coal from local mines to wharves on the River Tyne.
2 MILLENNIUM WALKWAY BRIDGE Derbyshire
Built in 2000, the walkway is a graceful elliptical footbridge that is suspended high over the River Goyt at New Mills. It sweeps 250m within the ravine, giving spectacular views of mills and ruins deep within a wooded gorge.
3 TRINITY BRIDGE Crowland, Lincolnshire
A true architectural oddity. This eyecatching little medieval bridge stands high and dry in the town centre. Its stocky limestone arches once crossed the confluence of the Welland and Nene rivers (now diverted and culverted), explaining the peculiar triangular design.
4 BARMOUTH BRIDGE Gwynedd
The longest timber bridge in Britain arrows across Mawddach Estuary, carrying the Cambrian Coast railway on its glorious route around the rim of Cardigan Bay. Completed in 1867, it has an iron swingbridge at the northern end that allows masted ships to pass.
5 MONNOW BRIDGE Monmouthshire
The River Monnow sweeps below Monmouth’s castle before curling under the Disneyesque Monnow Gate. Built on the sturdy old humpback bridge in the 1300s as part of the town defences, it’s the only such fortified gateway bridge in Britain and was in use as a road bridge until 2004.
6 KYLESKU BRIDGE Scottish Highlands
Opened in 1984, this graceful, tightly curving concrete bridge proves that modern road bridges can be attractive. It replaced a centuries-old ferry crossing of a narrows where three deep sea lochs meet and mingle amid the stunning, remote landscape of the North-West Highlands.
7 SWARKESTONE BRIDGE & CAUSEWAY Derbyshire
An astonishing stone construction that crosses the Trent’s wide flood meadows and the river itself. A mile long, most of it dates from the 1200s. Low, higgledy-piggledy arches, buttresses, refuges and cutwaters slump into the landscape; it’s almost ethereal when seen emerging from a thinning mist.