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 B ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

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 (), also known simply as Bervie, is a small town on the north-east coast of Scotland, south of Stonehaven, in the Kincardineshire, Mearns. Etymology The name comes from Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic and means "mouth of Bervie Water". Hi ...

. 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 The List of places in East Lothian is a list for any town, village and hamlet in the East Lothian ...

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

Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 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. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...

, including the Bridge of Avon at

Ballindalloch Ballindalloch () 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 distillery and Ballindalloc ...

, which is now a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

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

Dingwall Dingwall (, ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland (council area), 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 castle north ...

and

Huntly Huntly ( 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 settlements include Keith ...

, 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 * Gordon Heuck ...

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

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

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

Wick, Caithness Wick ( ; ) 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 of 6,954 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011 ...

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

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 ...

. 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 (, , or ; ) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. First mentioned in the ''Orkneyinga saga'', it is today the location of the headquarters of the Orkney Islands Council and a transport hub wi ...

and

Portmahomack Portmahomack (; '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 the end of the Tar ...

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

References

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