Luss Glebe Bridge: The Sappers’ Bridge

In January, 1993 a tree washed down the river, lodged under the old bridge and, in the middle of a terrible storm, eventually dislodged the existing structure, leaving the folk of Luss with no access to the beautiful almost twenty-five acre glebe.

Attempts to restore it had always been unsuccessful until, in the early part of 2006, the Royal Engineers agreed to send a team to rebuild the bridge. The team was made up of members of 5 (Close Support) Troop of 21 Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers based in Osnabruck in Germany. During May of 2006 twenty-one soldiers spent three weeks with us building the wonderful bridge which is now so much part of our village. The weather was atrocious but nothing could prevent the Engineers from completing their task, manhandling huge beams into place and on occasion working up to their chests in water.

All the costs of labour were provided by the Royal Engineers. All materials were paid for by Babcock Naval Services – an important company in our local economy – who also resourced all the materials and provided a member of staff, Chris McCairns, to act as our clerk of works.

The bridge was opened on Friday 2nd. June by Sally MacAdie, Human Resources and Crew Services Director of Babcock Naval Services. The top brass of the Army was represented by Lt. Col. Donald Ross and speaking on behalf of the community was Councillor William Petrie, Convenor of Argyll Council. Everyone in the village turned out, the troops marched to the bridge, there was a flypast overhead and a street party to celebrate.

Most importantly of all, the building of the bridge opened the way for us to create our international youth project and invite young people from all around the world to come and join us on the glebe.