Linn of Dee Bridge
; "Linn of Dee Bridge")
Linn of Dee Bridge - 14th July 2009
Linn of Dee Bridge is the granite vehicle bridge over the Dé at Eas Dé.
The current bridge is at least the third 'proper' bridge built at Eas Dé. The first bridge, built in the teens or twenties of the 19th century, was destroyed by the Muckle Spate of 1829. The second bridge replaced the first, and was itself replaced by the third and current bridge in 1857.
In 1857 the current bridge was officially opened by Queen Victoria on September 8th - she recorded the event in Victoria (1877) - writing :
we started in “Highland state” – Albert in a royal Stuart plaid, and I and the girls in skirts of the same, – with the ladies (who had only returned at five in the morning from the ball at Mar Lodge) and gentlemen, for the Linn of Dee, to open the new bridge there. The valley looked beautiful. A triumphal arch was erected, at which Lord Fife and Mr. Brooke received us, and walked near the carriage, pipers playing – the road lined with Duff men. On the bridge Lady Fife received us, and we drank in whisky “prosperity to the bridge.”
– Victoria (1877) (p118)
