Smeaton's Bridge

An 18th-century stone bridge over the Tay with flood level markers recording centuries of high water

Smeaton's Bridge was designed by the engineer John Smeaton (who also built the Eddystone Lighthouse) and completed in 1771. It carried all traffic across the Tay at Perth for over two centuries and remains the main pedestrian crossing. The bridge is sturdy and elegant — six arches of warm sandstone — and the views up and downstream are good, particularly at dusk when the light catches the water.

The flood level markers on the piers are genuinely interesting if you look for them. The Tay is one of Scotland's most powerful rivers in spate conditions, and the historical record of flooding at this point stretches back well before the bridge was built. The bridge is a five-minute walk south of the city centre.

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The piers of Smeaton's Bridge carry engraved flood markers recording how high the Tay has risen at this point through the centuries. The 1814 flood marker sits several metres above a normal river level. Walking across the bridge and reading these markers — each one a winter when the water reached here — gives the Tay's power a specificity that descriptions cannot.

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