Fully to describe the great work which the mature engineer
constructed in the Highland region, would take up more space than
could be allotted to such a subject anywhere save in a complete
industrial history of roads and travelling in modern Britain. It
must suffice to say that when Telford took the matter in hand, the
vast block of country north and west of the Great Glen of Caledonia
(which divides the Highlands in two between Inverness and Ben
Nevis)--a block comprising the counties of Caithness, Sutherland,
Ross, Cromarty, and half Inverness--had literally nothing within it
worthy of being called a road. Wheeled carts or carriages were
almost unknown, and all burdens were conveyed on pack-horses, or,
worse still, on the broad backs of Highland lassies. The people
lived in small scattered villages, and communications from one to
another were well-nigh impossible. Telford set to work to give the
country, not a road or two, but a main system of roads. First, he
bridged the broad river Tay at Dunkeld, so as to allow of a direct
route straight into the very jaws of the Highlands. Then, he also
bridged over the Beauly at Inverness, so as to connect the opposite
sides of the Great Glen with one another. Next, he laid out a
number of trunk lines, running through the country on both banks,
to the very north of Caithness, and the very west of the Isle of
Skye. Whoever to this day travels on the main thoroughfares in the
greater Scottish Islands--in Arran, Islay, Jura, Mull; or in the
wild peninsula of Morvern, and the Land of Lorne; or through the
rugged regions of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, where the railway
has not yet penetrated,--travels throughout on Telford's roads.
The number of large bridges and other great engineering
masterpieces on this network of roads is enormous; among the most
famous and the most beautiful, are the exquisite single arch which
spans the Spey just beside the lofty rearing rocks of Craig