Forth Bridge

Location: North and South Queensferry
Opening times: 24 hours
Entry: Free
Access: Parking on site in North and South Queensferry.

I have been unusually lax in posting due to a paid writing gig involving a fair bit of research and a tight deadline (an article about Humble Pie for Shindig! magazine, due to appear in the December 2025 issue), so apologies for that.

I had hoped to squeeze in a visit to Callendar House over the past few days but was put off by the truly atrocious weather. In the meantime it dawned on me that my next post – this post – will be the 250^th, so I decided to mark the occasion by writing instead about one of Scotland’s more iconic sights, and surely there is nothing more iconic than the Forth Bridge (note: NOT the Forth Rail Bridge, just the Forth Bridge). It admittedly doesn’t come with a brown sign, but the viewpoint built at the time of the Forth Road Bridge does, so that’s good enough for me.

*This and the other sunny day photographs on this page were taken in October 2020 on a sailing from South Queensferry to Inchcolm Island.*

A ferry has operated between North Queensferry and South Queensferry since the 12^th century and was initiated by Queen Margaret, hence the name of the villages. By the 18^th century it was considered the busiest ferry crossing in Scotland. Early the following century there was talk first about building a tunnel beneath the Forth (1806), and then the civil engineer James Anderson proposed a three-span suspension bridge in 1818, although nothing came of it.

The contract for a bridge spanning the Forth eventually went to Thomas Bouch, who had already facilitated trains crossing the river by designing a roll-on roll-off train ferry between Granton and Burntisland. Like Anderson, Bouch envisioned a suspension bridge, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1873. However, all work on Bouch’s Forth Bridge came to an abrupt halt on 28 December 1879 following the collapse of the Tay Bridge during a storm. Tragically, a train had been crossing at the time and all on board, and estimated 75 souls, were killed. As the designer of the Tay Bridge was one Thomas Bouch, confidence in his Forth Bridge also collapsed. Enter John Fowler and Benjamin Baker, whose replacement cantilever design was authorised in 1882. Work on the Bridge we know today began in 1883 and it was opened in 1890.

The lighthouse on Inchgarvie Island is dwarfed by the mighty Bridge. It was constructed in 1886 and stands on the only part of Thomas Bouch’s proposed bridge that was completed prior to the Tay Bridge Disaster ending his career.

We’ll avoid the usual nuts ‘n’ bolts statistics of 53,000 tonnes of steel and 6.5 million rivets being used during the Bridge’s construction as that information is far to abstract to imagine – what does 6.5 million rivets look like? – and settle for saying that it is 2.5km (1.5 miles) long, stands 110 metres above the water, and that 4,000 men were employed at the height of construction. We’ll also allow that the Bridge was Britain’s first built entirely of steel and that 53,000 tonnes was the most ever used on a single structure at that point.

Sailing under the Bridge en route to Inchcolm Island about three miles east down river, October 2020. Trips to the island and its abbey have stopped for the winter, but I plan on revisiting next year to write about on this site.

*The view from North Queensferry harbour. Taken on a dull day, September 2025.*

Inchgarvie island and its castle in front of the Bridge. The castle was built in the early sixteenth century and was used as a prison from 1519 and 1671, with victims of the plague being exiled there in 1580. The castle housed workers during the building of the Bridge, and some of its masonry used to construct the Bridge’s caissons.

*Inchgarvie Island and South Queensferry from the top of the Bridge.*

*Barnardo’s organise trips to the top of the Bridge every September, which always sell out very quickly. Annie and I were fortunate enough to snag the 7.30am slot on the 20th.* *Participants are taken to the top in a lift so there is no climbing involved, and the views are terrific. That’s North Queensferry in the background.*

The Bridge gifted us the phrase ‘like painting the Forth Bridge’, a Scottish colloquialism meaning a never-ending task. A common misconception was that it took so long to paint the bridge that workers immediately had to start the task all over again upon completion. This was never the case, but the notion was put to rest after the bridge was covered in a coating designed to last 25 years. As the coating was applied between 2001 and 2011, it means painters should be seen on the bridge for the first time in fifteen years in 2026.

*A train makes its way south across the Bridge en route to Edinburgh. It is one of approximately 200 trains that make the crossing every day.*

The Bridge was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015 and in a survey conducted by Visit Scotland in 2016 the Bridge was voted Scotland’s “greatest man-made wonder”. It won 30% of the vote, more than twice that of runner-up Edinburgh Castle. Other entries included the Kelpies, the Glenfinnan Viaduct, and – not an obvious choice – Melrose Abbey.

The Forth Bridge has since been joined by the Forth Road Bridge, opened on 4 September 1964. I think coverage of the opening may well be my earliest television memory. The Queensferry Crossing opened exactly 53 years later, on 4 September 2017. Both bridges were opened by Elizabeth II. The Forth Bridge is just out of shot to the right.

By the time the Bridge was completed the death toll of 73 nearly matched that of the Tay Bridge Disaster. This monument rather forlornly remembers “the men **known** to have died building the Forth Bridge”. Health and safety has obviously greatly improved since then, but seven men died during the construction of the Forth Road Bridge and one while building the Queensferry Crossing.

The tiny North Queensferry Light Tower guided boats across the river until the cessation of the ferry service in the 1960s. It is the world’s smallest working light tower, and was designed by the great lighthouse builder Robert Stevenson, grandfather of author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Destination or Diversion?

Whether the Forth Bridge is a destination or a diversion is down to the individual. Those just wanting to see and/or photograph it can find various viewing points in either North or South Queensferry. However, more time is required for those wishing to support Barnado’s by going to the top, while others may wish to see the Bridge up close and personal by taking a train across. The service from Dalmeny Station in South Queensferry to North Queensferry Station runs approximately every half hour, and the journey takes five minutes. Alternatively the Bridge can be viewed by taking a boat to Inchcolm (spring to early autumn only), or while having a stroll around North or South Queensferry.

Destination or Diversion?

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