Canderside Bridge, Cander Water, Canderside

This is a three-span bridge built in the 1820s, designed by Thomas Telford and dated 1821. Constructed from cream sandstone, it crosses the Cander Water and formerly carried the Edinburgh-Ayr road, which was later bypassed in 1965. The bridge features round arches and curved wing walls. It is built with tapered, polished ashlar piers set on stepped plinths. A band course runs at the impost level, while the soffits are polished and channelled, with rusticated voussoirs. The bridge has a base course below solid, polished sandstone parapets, topped with a ridged ashlar cope. Pyramidal-capped dies are located at the bridge ends, featuring shallow, round-arched niches on their outer faces. The wing walls are stugged and have heads that curve down from the parapets. Putlog holes, remnants from arch centering, can be seen near the heads of the piers and abutments.

This bridge is a smaller, unaltered version of Telford’s Cartland Bridge in Lanark, and is the only surviving example of its type. It sits on the border between the parishes of Dalserf and Stonehouse. In 1882, the bridge was the site of a highway robbery during which approximately £3000 was taken from Mr Cunningham, an agent of the Union Bank; the money was subsequently recovered. The bridge appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map from 1859, and is described in the New Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1840).