Kenly Viaduct

Kenly Viaduct

Connectivity with the Scottish town of Anstruther improved greatly on 1st September 1863 when the Leven & East of Fife Railway arrived from the west. Thereafter, momentum slowly built for a cross-country line to St Andrews, nine miles to the north; this was sanctioned by a Parliamentary Act on 26th August 1880 under the banner of the Anstruther & St Andrews Railway (A&SAR).

Topographical challenges resulted in a route that largely ran parallel to the coast, first heading north-east to Crail before turning north-westwards to reach Boarhills. In the presence of a large crowd, the first sod was turned by Mrs Purvis of Kinaldy on 13th April 1881. Construction materials came mostly from the freestone quarries at Craighead.

Delay was experienced when the contractor, John Coghill & Son, was declared bankrupt in the summer of 1882. By this time, the firm had received £9,112 for works already completed, but had incurred costs and liabilities of £13,740. Despite this setback, Major Marindin, acting for the Board of Trade, was able to carry out an official inspection of the section to Boarhills – accompanied by the engineer, Mr Bell – on 27th August 1883. A daily service comprising four trains in each direction was inaugurated on 1st September.

In St Andrews, the new station was to be built in the town centre, half-a-mile south of the terminus on the existing North British branch. The NB offered £5,000 to construct a connecting line and cover the additional costs associated with a through station. This agreement was formalised by a second Parliamentary Act in July 1883. The through route opened on 1st June 1887, with the original station converted thereafter into a goods facility named St Andrews Links. Ten years later, the A&SAR sold the line to the North British.

The route’s post-war decline followed a familiar pattern, driven by under-investment and the convenience of road transport. Passenger services south of St Andrews were withdrawn on 4th September 1965 whilst goods trains survived for another ten months, ending on 18th July 1966. Closure claimed the line’s northern section on 6th January 1969.

In engineering terms, the Anstruther & St Andrews Railway was relatively light, but did include a five-span viaduct over Kenly Water, about 80 yards in length. It was located on the immediate eastern approach to Boarhills Station where the line turned through almost 90 degrees, following a curve of approximately 18 chains in radius.

Stone from an adjacent quarry was used for the viaduct’s coursed piers, spandrels and parapets; the latter sit on string courses and are interrupted by refuges, corbelled out above each pier. Posts and railings remain extant over the southern half of the viaduct.

The segmental arches comprise six brick rings, several of the arch barrels being covered in calcite, suggesting a failure of the formal drainage system; there is also some brick spalling and ring separation. Ivy blights much of the structure – which is now in private ownership – and surrounding trees substantially mask it through the summer months.

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