The Tay Bridge

Dundee 2026 #1

I didn't come straight home after the Fife walking holiday, instead choosing to travel a little further north to Dundee, across the Firth of Tay. 

The first ever bridge across the Tay, replacing a train ferry service, was a single track rail bridge that opened in 1878. In 1879, disaster struck when it suddenly collapsed in high winds while a train was crossing, killing all 75 people aboard. The incident remains one of the worst bridge-related engineering disasters in history, an event that shook the Victorian engineering community. Eventually another rail bridge was built, much stronger and sturdier, that opened in 1887 and is still used to day. You can see it in the distance in the photo below. 

Road traffic continued to use ferries until the Tay Road Bridge was constructed, opening in 1966. It has a dual carriageway and a pedestrian/cycle route down the middle. It's quite a walk! At 1.4 miles, the bridge is one of the longest road bridges in the UK. Until 2008 it was a toll bridge, but fees to cross it are no longer required.

My last photo shows the road bridge from the riverside in Dundee.  Those scaffold type towers behind it are not part of the bridge, and may be something to do with offshore energy installations.  

There is some humour attached to these bridges. In 2002, a local radio competition to find a slogan for the bridge was abandoned after the slogan with the most votes – 'It's all downhill to Dundee' – (reflecting the bridge's downward angle) was deemed unsuitable.

With regard to the Tay rail bridge disaster, it led to the writing of possibly one of the worst poems in history, by William McGonagall. It's so bad it's almost comical. (Read it HERE) It ends: 

'For the stronger we our houses do build,

The less chance we have of being killed.'

A lonely cloud

Clouds have been something of a rarity over recent weeks. This one, though present, was certainly 'wandering lonely', though I thought it made a nice composition. I'm very much getting to the point where I want to see actual rainclouds - and it's not often you feel like that in this country! 

Leeds canal walk

It was a pleasant walk in the sunshine back to Leeds rail station, along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. There are numerous bridges and it's all quite green and leafy, with waterlilies on the surface. 

A section sandwiched between the canal and river has been made into an urban park, quite untamed and full of wildflowers and butterflies. 

Graffiti 'artists'/hooligans (depending on your viewpoint!) have run amok. One wonders how they have managed to access some of the more out of the way stretches, like the wall below tightly sandwiched between the canal and rail lines.  And still more high-rise blocks are under construction. 

Here and there, reminders of the industrial past of this area have been retained. The Italianate tower (below), built in 1866 and modelled on the Torre dei Lamberti in Verona, was a dust extractor for the Tower Works, operational from 1864 until 1981, which made steel pins for carding and combing in the textile industry. 

Eventually the canal arrives at its Leeds endpoint, Granary Wharf (the name being no doubt a bit of a giveaway as to what used to be situated here). In the distance in my photo below you can see the lock that releases it into the River Aire, which becomes navigable from here through the centre of the city to the Leeds Dock marina and then into the Aire and Calder Navigation. 

Angles

There was something quite compelling about all the new glass and steel office blocks in Wellington Place in Leeds. Those vast expanses of windows reflect the sky quite wonderfully and the grids break and intersect in intriguing ways. I had fun trying out different compositions; I could have stayed and played a lot longer. I do, however, wonder if they'll have as long a life as the amazing Victorian and Edwardian buildings right in the city centre. Probably not! 

Monk Bridge Viaduct

Just south of the Wellington Place development (see yesterday), what's left of the disused railway viaduct has recently been reopened as a pedestrian walkway and urban garden, linking the office development with residential areas south of the river. 

The grade two-listed Monk Bridge Viaduct was built around 1846 as part of the new railway network being constructed in the Wellington Street area of Leeds. It became an important part of Leeds Central Station which was completed in 1857, carrying high level lines to the station and connecting to the lifting tower which still stands on the Wellington Place development today.

It still spans the Leeds-Liverpool Canal as that winds its way into the city:

as well as the River Aire which runs alongside the canal: 

The old trackway has been made into an urban park, quite attractive though I'm not sure I'd want to be wandering around there at dusk. 

Leeds Wagon Lifting Tower

I met a friend in Leeds recently. We had two objectives: 1) A coffee and a good catch-up 2) To find and explore the Leeds Wagon Lifting Tower mini museum. Both were achieved!

Just to the west of Leeds railway station there's a large area of development called Wellington Place, a  new urban quarter, 'blending high-specification office space with all the perks of the city centre: independent restaurants, enviable facilities and attractive outdoor spaces'. It is indeed quite an interesting area, with wide pedestrian boulevards linking modern high-rise glass office blocks. In the middle sits one of the last remaining pieces of history in this area: one of the twin towers that, using steam power and hoists, lifted railway wagons down from the rail viaduct that spanned the river and canal to deposit them in the Great Northern Goods Yard, at a lower level, ready to be unloaded. 

On the ground floor there is a tiny museum with old signs, photographs and sketches showing its history and how the area used to look between the 1850s and 1950s when it finally closed down. There were originally several rail stations in the city, belonging to the various railway companies. Eventually they were amalgamated into the existing Leeds station. 

It's a fascinating little piece of history and good to see a bit of Leeds' past restored and incorporated into the new urban quarter, part of Leeds' future. 

Mass Wuthering

Why, you might ask, was there a steady stream of people dressed in red climbing to Penistone Hill, above the Brontë family home in Haworth? 

It was what is known as 'The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever', held in July each year, which sees thousands of people across the world recreate the video to Kate Bush's 1978 song Wuthering Heights, inspired by Emily Brontë's novel. Dancers pay an entry fee, which raises money for charity. 

My daughter, son-in-law and younger granddaughter (all of whom simply LOVE 'dressing up') were participants so I and my older granddaughter (we don't love dressing up!) went along to watch.  

There were a few practice runs first. Though the 500 dancers were supposed to have learned the moves beforehand, the extent to which that had happened (or not) was abundantly clear!

Then - the dance. Given that it hasn't rained here for weeks, the fact that it was very windy, quite cold and very wet was ironic. They all got soaked to the skin. It was certainly 'wuthering' (definition: blustering, stormy, or roaring loudly like a heavy wind)! Remarkably, it didn't seem to dampen anyone's enthusiasm. 

There were quite a few men in frocks and dogs in frocks. The men were allowed to dance, the dogs weren't!

BBC and ITV News were there and there’s a video HERE.

The 'stream' home again was more literally that, very damp indeed. Aw. We went for a pub lunch to warm up and dry off. I'd like to say it was good fun...  

Let there be light

Fife holiday 2026 #20

Whilst wandering the streets of St Andrews, I was delighted to come across a shop that still had its original Victorian cast iron and glass pavement lights, intended to allow a certain amount of light into the basement below. There used to be some in Saltaire but I think they have all been removed. The glass and iron deteriorates over time (those shown have been repaired with wood in places). I do like them. They usually look dusty and dull in situ but a bit of processing trickery lifts the colours. 

 

Ahoy there!

Fife holiday 2026 #19

It seems that on the East Neuk of Fife coast, the trendiest thing to place in your window is a model sailing boat. There were lots of them. I decided they would make a nice subject for a small photo project. There were also a few on date stones or above doors, so I included one of those. 

Seeing the sea

Fife holiday 2026 #18

I could have spent an entire day just gazing at the sea! It's an environment in which I'm only able to spend  time infrequently, and it's an enticing one, I think, because it changes all the time. When I was able to sit and stare I tried hard to really see it and understand what aspects were attracting my attention. (Maybe it's simply because it's mainly blue... my favourite colour! 😂 ) I enjoyed making photos of it. 

A pest

Its flowers are not unattractive but it's a pest! Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) is one of the UK's most aggressive, invasive plants. Introduced in 1839, it thrives along riverbanks and in damp woodlands. It outcompetes native flora and causes severe riverbank erosion in the winter. It is illegal to plant or allow it to spread in the wild. It has explosive seed pods that burst and scatter seeds up to 7 metres away. Sadly, it is rapidly taking over the riverside path beyond Saltaire. People periodically do some 'balsam bashing' before it sets seed but that isn't enough to eradicate it. It's now so high that in places it's hard to see the river.

Soothing

An overcast and slightly cooler morning in the midst of our heatwave encouraged me out for a longer walk. What a delight it was to immerse myself in the soothing greens alongside the river and canal. 

The water level in the river is very, very low - a mere trickle over the weir and, higher upstream, you could barely discern any movement or current.  I think we'll be getting a hose-pipe ban soon, to conserve water, despite the wet winter we had.