GENERAL WADE'S ROADS (1726).
Source.—Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland to his Friend in London, vol. ii., p. 183, by Captain Burt. Fifth edition. (London: 1822.)
Letter XXVI. Concerning the New Roads, etc., 173-.
These new roads were begun in the year 1726, and have continued about eleven years in the prosecution; yet, long as it may be thought, if you were to pass over the whole work (for the borders of it would show you what it was), I make no doubt but that number of years would diminish in your imagination to a much shorter tract of time, by comparison with the difficulties that attended the execution.
But, before I proceed to any particular descriptions of them, I shall inform you how they lie, to the end that you may trace them out upon a map of Scotland; and first I shall take them as they are made, to enter the mountains, viz.—
One of them begins from Crief, which is about fourteen miles from Stirling: here the Romans left off their works, of which some parts are visible to this day, particularly the camp at Ardoch, where the vestiges of the fortifications are on a moor so barren, that its whole form has been safe from culture, or other alteration besides weather and time.
The other road enters the hills at Dimheld,[79] in Athol, which is about ten miles from Perth.
The first of them, according to my account, though the last in execution, proceeds through Glenalmond (which, for its narrowness, and the height of the mountains, I remember to have mentioned formerly), and thence it goes to Aberfaldy; there it crosses the river Tay by a bridge of free-stone, consisting of five spacious arches (by the way, this military bridge is the only passage over that wild and dangerous river), and from thence the road goes on to Dalnachardoch.
The other road from Dunkeld proceeds by the Blair of Athol to the said Dalnachardoch.