The river was first bridged in about 1817, when Thomas Telford constructed the five arched Lovat Bridge about 1 km south west of Beauly.[1] This bridge carried the A9, the main route north, until the Kessock Bridge was opened in 1982. A railway bridge across the river on the outskirts of Beauly was built in the 1860s to carry the Inverness & Ross-shire Railway (now the Far North Line). Another road bridge, near Kilmorack, was built in the 20th century.