Qualla: Brig o' Balgownie https://qualla.com/brig-o-balgownie en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Brig o' Balgownie https://qualla.com/brig-o-balgownie Brig o' Balgownie: Introduction https://qualla.com/brig-o-balgownie/ Whoever held the Brig o' Balgownie held the road. For five hundred years there was no other way to move an army quickly up the eastern coast of Aberdeenshire - no other crossing of the Don wide enough for cavalry, deep enough for trade, solid enough for cannon. The bridge is a single pointed gothic arch, approximately twenty-one metres in span, its apex rising twelve metres above the water at low tide. Granite and sandstone, built rough and built to last. Construction began in the late thirteenth century, paused through the Wars of Scottish Independence, and finished around 1320 - which means it was new when Robert the Bruce died. It has been standing ever since, repaired but not replaced, carrying the medieval north road across the river that defined Old Aberdeen.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/t/brig-o-balgownie-wp/gfnt-brig-o-balgownie-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Brig o' Balgownie: Who Actually Built It https://qualla.com/brig-o-balgownie/ The story everyone repeats is that Bishop Henry Cheyne began the bridge around 1290 and Robert the Bruce finished it after driving the bishop into exile - directing the bishop's confiscated rents to the project as an act of piety. The story is romantic and partially true. The ear...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/t/brig-o-balgownie-wp/gfnt-brig-o-balgownie-who-actually-built-it.mp3 0:06 2 full Brig o' Balgownie: What's in the Name https://qualla.com/brig-o-balgownie/ Balgownie comes from the barony that surrounded the crossing, and the etymology is more contested than the bridge's authorship. Some authorities derive it from Baile, the Gaelic for town. But the earliest references all start with Pol or Pal - Palgoueny, Polgowny, Polgouny - sugg...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/t/brig-o-balgownie-wp/gfnt-brig-o-balgownie-whats-in-the-name.mp3 0:06 3 full Brig o' Balgownie: Hay's Fund https://qualla.com/brig-o-balgownie/ By 1605 the bridge was falling down. Five centuries of weather, war traffic, and patchwork repairs had brought it to a state of major deterioration, and the burgh had no regular fund for maintenance. Sir Alexander Hay of Whytburgh stepped in and established a maintenance endowmen...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/t/brig-o-balgownie-wp/gfnt-brig-o-balgownie-hays-fund.mp3 0:06 4 full Brig o' Balgownie: Passed By, Preserved https://qualla.com/brig-o-balgownie/ The Brig o' Balgownie stopped being a main road in 1830 when the new Bridge of Don was built five hundred yards downstream, designed to handle the increasing volume of carriage and cart traffic the old single arch could no longer take. The old bridge was, in effect, decommissione...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/t/brig-o-balgownie-wp/gfnt-brig-o-balgownie-passed-by-preserved.mp3 0:06 5 full