Duncan Harley

The original Don Bridge at Inverurie was completed by Banff mason James Robertson in 1791. Despite powerful floods and the ravages of time, the structure remained sound until the needs of 20 th   century transport forced its demolition to make way for the new crossing. The narrow roadway, plus the seven-foot-high central hump which vehicles had to negotiate had rendered the old bridge completely obsolete.  The contract for the new Don bridge was awarded to construction company William Tawse and, following the building of a temporary wooden crossing and demolition of the old bridge, construction of the new reinforced concrete bridge began in the April of 1924. A year later on the morning of 30 May 1925 an excited crowd of onlookers gathered to witness both the official testing and the official opening of the new bridge. At 10am precisely, a steam whistle blew and with a mighty roar two massive steam-driven road trains moved slowly in tandem onto the newly built ...

Local history writer with two best-selling books under his belt, author Duncan Harley reveals all. Q: What inspired you to write about the history of north-east Scotland? A: A chance encounter with an employee of a publishing firm led to book one. As in so many things in life, it’s the little things that matter. I had been asked to review a couple of books for a glossy magazine and as a follow-on, sent some recent articles to test the waters. The articles ended up on an editor’s desk and two books were subsequently commissioned. Q: What inspired you to write your most recent book? A: The A-Z of Curious Aberdeenshire had a somewhat random structure and I felt that for book two, a historical timeline was really needed. Hence – The Little History of Aberdeenshire. I had attended a conference organised by Aberdeen Library Service in 2017 at which a local archaeologist had delivered a lecture about the Roman occupation of the north east and felt that Picts and Romans ...