Alexander Nimmo
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Alexander Nimmo
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
MRIA MICE HFGS (1783 – January 20, 1832) was a Scottish
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
and
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...
active in early 19th-century
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.


Early life

Nimmo was born in
Cupar Cupar ( ; ) is a town, former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland. It lies between Dundee and Glenrothes. According to a 2011 population estimate, Cupar had a population around 9,000, making it the ninth-largest settlement in Fife, and the ...
,
Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...
in 1783, the son of a watchmaker, and grew up in
Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...
. He may have been educated at Kirkcaldy Burgh School, then studied at the
University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
and
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
. His first role was as Rector of
Inverness Royal Academy Inverness Royal Academy is a comprehensive secondary school in the city of Inverness in the Highland area of Scotland. A former grammar school with a history dating back to the 13th century, the academy became a comprehensive in the mid-1970s ...
in 1802, aged only 19. Around 1805, he became a Commissioner for the Scottish Boundaries Commission. In 1811 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...
for his contributions to marine geology. His proposers were George Steuart Mackenzie, Alexander Christison, and Thomas Allan.


Move to Ireland

From 1811, he worked in Ireland as an engineer, with his first major task being for the Commission for the Reclamation of Irish Bogs. This was apparently on the recommendation of
Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (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 Scotland, as well ...
. In 1814, when Dunmore East was still a small
County Waterford County Waterford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. ...
fishing hamlet, it was chosen by the British Post Office to be the Irish terminal for a new Mail Packet route from
Milford Haven Milford Haven ( ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was ...
in Wales. The Post Office procured Nimmo's services to design and build a harbour and lighthouse to accommodate the new Mail Packet Service. In building the harbour, Nimmo made use of local red sandstone, and his lighthouse took the form of a " fluted Doric column, with the lantern on top of the capital". The passenger and mail service operated between Milford and Dunmore for only ten years, before
Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...
Port became the Irish terminal; obviating the 10-mile road journey from Dunmore East. In 1815, he improved the navigation on the river at Cork and improved the adjacent harbour at
Cobh Cobh ( ,), known from 1849 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. With a population of 14,148 inhabitants at the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, Cobh is on the south si ...
. Beginning in 1820, he was employed by the Irish Fisheries Board to make extensive surveys and recommendations for Irelands fishing harbours.


Dublin office

Originally, Nimmo rented an office at 56 Marlborough Street, Dublin specifically for the purposes of carrying out his work for the Western District, but this building was found to be inadequate and the lease was terminated in June 1823. Nimmo never married, but had close ties with his brothers, John and George. At some point they arrived in Ireland to assist Alexander with his work, bringing their wives and children along with them, and would remain in Ireland for the rest of their lives. In September 1823, George Nimmo, living in Dublin, took out a 900-year lease on a property on the west side of Marlborough Street from the Reverend Mathias Kelly at the yearly rent of £91. The house number of the property was not specified in the deed, but we know it to have been number 78. A month later, he assigned the lease of this house on to his brother Alexander. This building would serve as the headquarters of the Western District works until 1832. Nimmo also personally lived at the address, and declared before a House of Lords enquiry in 1824 that he had but one property, "a house in Dublin, leasehold of nine hundred years". Nimmo kept a permanent staff in Dublin, and also the west of Ireland. Amongst the staff employed in Dublin were an accountant and other administrative staff, along with a number of student surveyors and engineers who were regularly sent to the west for the purposes of mapping sites of potential works or road routes.


Connemara

In August 1826, Thomas Martin of Ballinahinch,
County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...
granted a 'three-lives lease', or 99-year lease (whichever should last longest), to Nimmo, for property in the village of Roundstone in Galway consisting of ''"the farm and lands of the half cartron of Letterdife commonly called The White House, together with the shores and weeds thereunto belonging and also one acre now in his (Nimmo's) actual possession bounded on the east by Roundstone Bay..."''. The lease was witnessed by Nimmo, who was noted as living in the town of
Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...
at the time (perhaps temporarily) and his profession as 'architect'. The lease was valued at the yearly rent of eighteen pounds, nine shillings and two pence, three farthings ( £18.9.2d), and also specified that Nimmo could make use of the pasture on the mountain of Errisbeg in common with other tenants of Martin's. At some point, Nimmo came into possession of almost 240 acres of land at Roundstone Bay (probably separate to the 1826 deed listed above), on which land he developed a fishing village. Nimmo later told Dublin Castle that these buildings were erected entirely at his own expense; some of the buildings being intended for his own use or the use of his staff or workforce, and others rented out to the government. The project was intended as a commercial venture for the purposes of making a profit, and it does not appear that it was Nimmo's wish to live permanently in the village. However, both John and George Nimmo appear in deeds concerning Roundstone in the years following Alexander's death, indicating a lasting family or business connection with the area. Nimmo erected 'a lodge' at Leenaun to accommodate his workforce in that area, and in 1831, the property was given over to a tenant who converted it into 'a billeting place for travellers passing to the western coast'. In Leenaun he also built a store, office, carpentry and smithy workshops, all of which he rented to the government for three years, from June 1828 to June 1831, at the rent of £30 per annum. Nimmo had proposed numerous sites in the west of Ireland on which viable villages could be established, concentrating the inhabitants of the rural areas into a centre where trade and industry could flourish somewhat and alleviate their poverty. Towns, he argued, helped to elevate people away from their dependency on agriculture and the land: :'' "Generally speaking, it strikes me we should now endeavour to congregate the surplus population of Ireland into towns, where they could be useful to each other, rather than have them so much scattered over the country. The towns in Ireland bear a very small proportion, in respect of population, to the towns in England; and the industry, in like manner, is less"'' He had hoped that new villages would develop at Derryinver, Cleggan and
Spiddal Spiddal, also known as Spiddle (Irish language, Irish and official name: , , meaning 'the hospital'), is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway, Ireland. It is west of Galway city, on the R336 road (Ireland), R336 road. It is o ...
, but the only new villages that advanced during the 1820s were
Belmullet Belmullet (, IPA: bʲeːlənˠˈwʊɾˠhəd̪ˠ is a coastal Gaeltacht town with a population of 1,019 on the Mullet Peninsula in the barony (Ireland), barony of Erris, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the commercial and cul ...
and his own settlement at Roundstone.


Other works

In 1828, Nimmo visited the
Wirral Peninsula The Wirral Peninsula (), known locally as the Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpo ...
alongside
Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (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 Scotland, as well ...
and Robert Stevenson for the purposes of studying the problems of the rivers Dee and
Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it ...
, for which the three men later submitted a report. In 1830, he was commissioned by the
Knight of Kerry Knight of Kerry (), also called The Green Knight, is one of three Hiberno-Norman Knight#Ireland, hereditary knighthoods, all of which existed in Ireland since feudal times. The other two were White Knight (Fitzgibbon family), The White Knight ( ...
to design a new village on
Valentia Island Valentia Island () is one of Republic of Ireland, Ireland's most westerly points. It lies in Dingle Bay off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee ...
in County Kerry, which was later named Knightstown. His maritime engineering designs combined classical motifs with utilitarian functionality. Among other projects, he is credited with designing the road from Galway to Clifden and the harbour of Roundstone in Connemara.Journal of the Clifden & Connemara Heritage Group, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1995. In the 1830s he redesigned over 30 harbours on the western Irish coast. At Limerick, one of his major projects was the Wellesley Bridge (now known as the Sarsfield Bridge) which was constructed between 1824 and 1835.


Death

Nimmo died at his Dublin home, 78 Marlborough Street, on the evening of 20 January 1832, aged 49. According to ''The Times'', he had been for some time an invalid as a result of rheumatic pains, and had ultimately died from " dropsy". The ''Galway Weekly Advertiser'', a week after his death, marked his passing with the following
eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a term o ...
: :'' "Alexander Nimmo, Esq., F.R.S.E, M.R.I.A., Etc., Etc., The honorary distinctions are but as dust weighted in the balance when compared with the sterling talent and ntrinsicmerit of this excellent and lamented individual. Eulogism is unnecessary, as the word 'Ireland' alone will be both his most merited monument and suitable epitaph. No man so well understood the remedies required for its practical evils, and the effects will be felt long after the very remembrance of his name will have passed away. As a theorist and scientific member of his profession he has left 'no equal', and in conclusion it may safely be said, "the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
in general has sustained an almost irreparable loss""''


Select works

* Poulaphouca Bridge, linking County Wicklow and County Kildare


Publications

*'' Boscovitch's Theory'' (1812) *''Navigation Inland'' (1821) *''On the Application of the Science of Geology to the purposes of Practical Navigation'' (1823)


Further reading

*


References


Notes


Sources

* * * * * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nimmo, Alexander 1783 births 1832 deaths Scottish civil engineers Harbour engineers Scottish geologists Scottish surveyors People from Cupar Alumni of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Kirkcaldy