Description

Wrought iron tie bar removed during restoration work in 1995/6 from William Adam’s Mausoleum in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh. The picture shows the wider end where it forms a square section where it is joined to the horizontal bars. The tie bar strengthened the masonry construction. The bar is 2 m long and tapers from 40 mm diameter at the top to 30 mm diameter at the bottom.

The structure of stone-clad pyramid over masonry dome over three open arches and one solid wall, was tied horizontally with wrought iron bars at the spring of the arches and the rim of the pyramid, vertically down two corners, also diagonally across the corners near the inside of the dome. The most famous use of such ‘reinforcement’ occurred some 20 years later in the building of the Pantheon in Paris. This bar is the left vertical bar in the drawing: its top end is seen in the photograph through two square-section horizontal bars at their junction. All bars were removed and replaced with stainless steel in 1989. The mausoleum to William Adam, Architect, was erected by his sons John and Robert Adam in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh c.1750.

For a photograph of the mausoleum following the restoration work click here