Township: Baugh

Map Reference: Baugh 30

Name Type: bridge

Meaning: The new Baugh bridge

Other Forms:

Related Places:

Information:On the east side of Reef there is a small inlet called the ford, or in Gaelic “foadhail”. A small, sluggish rivulet, having its origins in a marsh a mile and a half inland, and forming the eastern boundary of Reef, runs into this inlet and constitutes the two divisions of this island called the east and west end. Spring tides often render the passage across the ford impractible at the usual place and a small stone bridge has been built half a mile further up for the convenience of travellers. The tide, when swollen and agitated by winter storms, has sometimes, though very rarely, been known to rise so high and run so far into the land that the sea from the south and north has nearly met and thus almost separated the island into two. The division on the west side of the ford is the most considerable and contains at least two thirds of the whole population. NSA, 1845, p 196.
Made by Bain in the 19th century - Robert Nisbet, Heanish, 11/1993.

Inscription on the bridge reads "1878 W. Bain." The new parapet has "WMcL 1955", and "AMK 1955". JH.

There is a mason living in Glasgow in the 1871 Census born 1840 in Wick.

The bridges of Gott, Baugh and Balinoe were built by the same man at the same time - Lachie Campbell, Crossapol, 8/2012.

It was sometimes known as 'Jamaica Bridge', as people often used to meet there, possibly after Jamaica (Street) Bridge in Glasgow. The name is reminiscent of 'The Hielanman's Umbrella' over Argyle Street, a famous meeting point of Highland people in Glasgow. Fiona MacKinnon, Lodge Farm, Kirkapol, 4/2020

Local Form:

Languages : Norse, Gaelic

Informants: Donald MacCallum, Scarinish, 11/1993