"Everybody loves a bridge. They are essentially romantic objects - brave, adventurous, usually handsome or at least interesting to look at, often magnificently idiosyncratic and every single one of them a seperate individual with its own personality, pedigree and background, each time to be freshly encountered and enjoyed."
Bridges. Sir Hugh Casson. 1963
The last bridge on the River Derwent stands in a deep valley about a mile west of Bay Bridge and is reached by footpaths from Hunstanworth or from Bay Bridge and Newbiggin which paths it connects. Down a steep path from a field north of Hunstanworth, it is approached over a meadow where the river has densely-wooded banks. Only a short distance upstream the Derwent proper begins at the the confluence of two burns, meeting at a picturesque place named Gibraltar Rock.
Beyond here are the moors high up on the Pennines from where many small streams feed the Derwent's two major tributary streams.