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WATCH: New drone footage and archive pictures of the Kessock Bridge, marking its 40th anniversary





About to link in the middle.
About to link in the middle.

On an atrocious day of mist and torrential rain forty years ago the late Queen Mother declared open the Kessock Bridge heralding a bright new era for the region.

With a touch of humour she told the thousands who had braved the weather for the big occasion: "This bridge will for the first time link Inverness and Ross and Cromarty and turn the Black Isle into even less of the island it has never been."

After years of delay and political in-fighting, the giant structure was finally completed in 1982.

The Kessock Bridge and its brand new little cousin, the Cromarty Bridge, vastly shortened the old A9 route and brought an instant boon to the burgeoning industrial development.

Thousands of workers could now be whisked to Easter Ross while, equally, thousands could quickly commute south to Inverness and the promise of employment.

Around 28,000 vehicle crossings are now made each day.

A dramatic image of the bridge under construction.
A dramatic image of the bridge under construction.

The cable-stayed bridge is a remarkable feat of engineering.

As it straddles the Great Glen fault line seismic buffers had to be fitted to absorb tremors.

Julia Wilson presents flowers to the Queen Mother.
Julia Wilson presents flowers to the Queen Mother.

Indeed, German civil engineer Hellmut Homberg won the design and construction Saltire Society Civil Engineering Award in 1983.

It now features on the Bank of Scotland’s £100 notes and, in 2019, was awarded Category B listed status.

Inverness economist Tony Mackay has hailed the bridge as "one of the best ever public sector investments in the region and Scotland as a whole".

He said: "It has brought substantial travel time and cost savings. The transport alternatives before the bridge were to drive around the twisting A9 Beauly road or take the Kessock Ferry.

"The Kessock Bridge placed the Black Isle within easy commuting and shopping distance of Inverness and was one of the factors leading to the remarkable growth of Scotland’s fifth city.

"There can be little doubt though that the main beneficiary has been the Black Isle, where there has been a big increase in the population since 1982, with a big increase in housebuilding in towns and villages.”

A series of archive photos, some reproduced here, have been released specially to mark the 40th anniversary.

Measuring 1056 metres in length, the link took around four years to build, at a cost of around £25 million – the equivalent of more than £100 million today.

Stuart Baird, from the Scottish Roads Archive, said: "The Kessock Bridge has become a much-loved landmark. It remains an impressive feat of civil engineering and one of the country’s most recognisable crossings."

Steel erectors who worked on the bridge.
Steel erectors who worked on the bridge.

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