J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Sheets Associated with the 1831 Tour of ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Telford's 'New' Bridge Over the River Averon near Alness 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Telford's 'New' Bridge Over the River Averon near Alness’ 1831
Telford’s ‘New’ Bridge Over the River Averon near Alness 1831
D34844
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV d 358
Pencil on off-white lined paper, 166 x 200 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘358’ bottom-right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 358’ bottom-right
Blindstamped with Turner Bequest stamp centre
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch has been identified as depicting Thomas Telford’s ‘New’ Bridge that crosses the River Averon (also called the Alness) at Balnacraig, about a mile north of the town of Alness in Ross.1 The view is from the parapet bordering the steep approach to the bridge from the south. Today the bridge looks very much the same, although the planting of trees on the surrounding hills has changed their appearance somewhat.
Turner probably made this sketch during a trip from Evanton (where he was staying with Hugh Munro at Novar House) to the Dornoch Firth in the north. There is a sketch of the Dornoch Firth at a distance (Tate D34846; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV d 360), but there are no sketches to confirm that Turner made it all the way to the Firth or to the town of Dornoch.
1
Wallace-Hadrill and Carolan 1994, p.15.
Verso:
Blank

Thomas Ardill
May 2010

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Telford’s ‘New’ Bridge Over the River Averon near Alness 1831’, catalogue entry, May 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/telfords-new-bridge-over-the-river-averon-near-alness-r1135606, accessed 04 August 2026.