Tour Scotland 4K Autumn travel video of General Wade's humpbacked Bridge over the River Tay on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to Aberfeldy, Scottish Gaelic: Obar Pheallaidh, in the Highlands of Perthshire, Britain, United Kingdom. Lieutenant General George Wade, born 1673, died 1748, was sent in 1725 to Scotland following the 1689, 1715 and 1719 Jacobite uprisings to build roads and bridges in the Scottish Highlands. He constructed this famous bridge n 1733 to the design of architect William Adam, father of the more famous Robert Adam. In 1725 Lieutenant-General George Wade was appointed Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Forces in North Britain. Wade was charged with building a network of roads and bridges throughout the Scottish Highlands to aid the transport of men and equipment. The government of King George II was rightly concerned about the possibility of another Jacobite uprising following the 1715 rebellion and wanted to make sure that military transport was as efficient as possible in case of another revolt. Over the next 15 years, Wade oversaw the building of 250 miles of roads - the first engineered roads in Britain since the departure of the Romans in the early 5th century. To link those roads he also built over 40 bridges. William Adam was born in Linktown of Abbotshall, now a neighbourhood of Kirkcaldy, Fife, and was baptised on 24 October 1689. He was the only surviving child of John Adam, died 1710, a mason, and Helen Cranstoun, daughter of William Cranstoun, 3rd Lord Cranstoun. His paternal grandfather was Archibald Adam, a laird in Angus. Adam probably attended the grammar school in Kirkcaldy until 1704, when he turned 15, and thereafter learned the craft of masonry, possibly from his father. It is often suggested that Adam was apprenticed to Sir William Bruce at Kinross House, although the dates make this unlikely. John Fleming suggests that if Adam trained under Bruce at all, it must have been at Hopetoun House which Bruce was building from 1699 to 1703. By 1717 Adam was a fully qualified member of the Kirkcaldy masons' guild, and before 1720 he travelled to France and the Low Countries, visiting country houses and viewing the canal at Ostend in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is not known how William Adam became a successful architect from these beginnings, but by 1721 he was engaged on major projects at Floors Castle. By 1728, Adam was firmly established as a successful architect with numerous ongoing business concerns, including coal mining, salt panning, quarrying and agricultural improvements. After the Jacobite rising of 1745, Adam's position as Mason to the Board of Ordnance brought him a number of large military contracts in the Highlands. In 1746, the position of Master Carpenter to the Board of Ordnance became vacant, and Adam was quick to put forward his son John's name for consideration, although he was unsuccessful in securing him the post. His three eldest sons were all involved in the family business by 1746, James and John both leaving Edinburgh University early to join their father. William Adam succumbed to illness in late 1747, dying the following summer. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, where John Adam designed the family mausoleum built in 1753. The River Tay, Scottish Gaelic: Tatha, is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh longest in the United Kingdom. The Tay originates in western Scotland on the slopes of Ben Lui mountain, Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Laoigh, then flows easterly across the Highlands, through Loch Dochart, Loch Iubhair and Loch Tay, then continues east through Strathtay, in the centre of Scotland, then south east through Perth, where it becomes tidal, to its mouth at the Firth of Tay, south of Dundee in Tayside. Aberfeldy was mentioned by Robert Burns in the poem The Birks Of Aberfeldy. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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