George Burn (1759 – c.1820) was an architect, civil engineer and contractor active in Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Burn was born in

Yester } Gifford is a village in the parish of Yester in East Lothian, Scotland. It lies approximately south of Haddington and east of Edinburgh. It groups around the Colstoun Water (locally called Gifford Water) at the junction of the B6369 and B6 ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

in 1759. His career in bridge design started in 1797, when he worked with his elder brother James Burn on a bridge at

Inverbervie Inverbervie (from gd, Inbhir Biorbhaidh or ''Biorbhaigh'', "mouth of the River Bervie") is a small town on the north-east coast of Scotland, south of Stonehaven. Etymology The name ''Inverbervie'' involves the Gaelic ''Inbhir Biorbhaigh'', ...

. In 1798 he designed and built a two-span bridge at

Bilsdean Bilsdean is a village between Thorntonloch and Cockburnspath on the East Lothian coast of Scotland. See also *List of places in East Lothian ''Map of places in East Lothian compiled from this list'' The List of places in East Lothian is a ...

in East Lothian, and between 1800 and 1804 he built a number of bridges over rivers in

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

, including the

Bridge of Avon The Bridge of Avon is a bridge over the River Avon at Ballindalloch in Moray, Scotland, built between 1800 and 1801 by George Burn. The bridge is mainly rubble-built, with an abutment on the south bank, and a pier with a cutwater on the north ba ...

Ballindalloch Ballindalloch ( gd, Baile na Dalach) is a small village on the River Spey in Scotland. It is known for its Scotch whisky, whisky distilleries and for Ballindalloch Castle. In Ballindalloch itself, there are two distilleries, Cragganmore distille ...

, which is now a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being *Categories (Aristotle), ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) ...

, as well as a number of ecclesiastical buildings, including two churches in

Dingwall Dingwall ( sco, Dingwal, gd, Inbhir Pheofharain ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest cast ...

and

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlemen ...

, and a chapel in the

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

Estate. He encountered financial difficulties connected with his work on the Spey Bridge at

Fochabers Fochabers (; gd, Fachabair or Fothabair) is a village in the Parish of Bellie, in Moray, Scotland, east of the cathedral city of Elgin and located on the east bank of the River Spey. 1,728 people live in the village, which enjoys a rich mus ...

, which led to his estate being sequestered in 1803. By 1806 he was living in

Wick, Caithness Wick ( gd, Inbhir Ùige (IPA: �inivɪɾʲˈuːkʲə, sco, Week) is a town and royal burgh in Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay. "Wick Locality" had a population ...

, working mainly as a masonry contractor on a number of bridges designed by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

. A spell of ill-health forced him to be absent from some of the work on Telford's bridges, which exacerbated his financial problems, but the projects were nonetheless completed successfully. In his later career, Burn worked on a number of harbour development projects. Telford recommended Burn to the British Fisheries Society in 1806 to work on the improvement of the fishing station at Pultneytown, where he built the piers and associated breastwork that formed the harbour. After that, he went on to work on other harbour construction projects in

Kirkwall Kirkwall ( sco, Kirkwaa, gd, Bàgh na h-Eaglaise, nrn, Kirkavå) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name (''Church Bay''), which later changed to ''Kirkv ...

and

Portmahomack Portmahomack ( gd, Port Mo Chalmaig; 'Haven of My .e. 'Saint'Colmóc') is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about from the village at t ...

. Burn continued to live in Wick until his death, around 1820.

References

19th-century Scottish architects 18th-century Scottish architects Scottish civil engineers 1759 births People from East Lothian People from Wick, Caithness {{Scotland-engineer-stub