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Strange Structure


earlofzetland
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I've often wondered about it too. Always assumed it had been part of a bridge, but that's only a hunch really. There seems to be a burn at the right hand side of the top picture which is dried up and what would have been the bank opposite that structure (off the photo) looks steep and solid enough not to need a structure like that to match.

 

Could there have been any military structures up there? Would that be part of MacLachlans walk? I believe that was named after a Sergeant MacLachlan.

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^If you know where to look in the top photo you can actually see the remains of the old war-time firing range in the background.

 

I'd always assumed it to be part of a bridge or culvert. It sticks in my mind that there was more to it than currently visible not-so-long ago but I cannot recall what else there was.

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Below is another view. It isn't a dried up burn but a man made track that leads down to the peat cutting site. It doesn't strike me as being part of Lerwick WW2 defences but i definately think it's 20th century. The pointing is still in pretty good nick and there are strange pipes sticking out of one end. It also has concrete lintels. It doesn't span the burn but lies in the (current) same direction as the flow of the water. I think it might be the Gremista burn. Also further up the hill you can see what appears to be part of a wall in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately i didn't want to get my feet wet so didn't take a photo but i wonder if the two are linked somehow?

http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss10/earlofzetland/IMG_1834.jpg

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Water used to go through the structure, but the top slabs have been lifted off and rubble has fallen in, pipes at the end are where old side ditches ran into the burn, which used to go through it, but the channel was dug out alongside when the bridge was (partly) demolished?

 

What I can see makes sense for it to be a bridge like that, it's just that all the ground round about looks a lot different now than it would have done when it was built - a lot of what you are seeing would have been underground.

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Maybe i've caused some confusion here. I edited my 'right' from a 'left' and you may have read my post before I did that.

 

Just had a look in google earth and it does look there as if there would have been a burn going past the right hand side of the structure before the road was built. The water now being diverted down the south side of the road. This old burn, if you follow it past the structure becomes 'live' again and runs into the North Gremista burn.

 

You can also see the track on the left hand side going down to the peat cuttings.

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A bridge would seem most likely, its not at a place many folk ever went though before the new road was built, so only a few would have known what exactly was there before construction started. There should be a some of them left yet though, as the road up from Gremista as it is today only came in 78/79.

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Been looking through the museums photographs and came across this picture

 

http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/index.php?a=wordsearch&s=item&key=WczoxMjoic291dGggYnJpZGdlIjs=&pg=6

 

 

It is taken roughly in the area where Hoofields caravan site is now. It refers to it as being taken near to the South bridge of Gremista. Unfortuanetly the bridge isn't in the photo. The fact it was called the "South bridge" would indicate there was also a north one. The bridge like structure we are discussing does lie to the north of where this picture was taken.

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