Annotation:New Bridge of Ballaters (The)

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NEW BRIDGE OF BALLATERS. Scottish, Strathspey. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by Perthshire fiddler-composer biography:Robert Petrie, in anticipation of the new bridge over the river Dee in Ballater in 1809. Petrie published the tune in 1805, before construction had even started. The first bridge at Ballater, erected in 1783, was totally destroyed in a spate (flood) in 1799. A popular convenience, the populace of the area determined at once to replace it and applied to the government for help. By 1806 plans were drawn up by the famous engineer Thomas Telford, and a new five-span granite bridge was begun, and completed in 1809. It lasted only twenty years before it too was washed away in the 'Great Spate.' It was replaced by a far less costly timber bridge, which ironically lasted fifty years, until it was replaced by a new granite bridge that was opened by Queen Victoria in 1885. This structure still stands.

The third bridge at Ballater, c. 1875



Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Petrie (A Fourth Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Jiggs and Country Dances), c. 1805.

Recorded sources:




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