Alexander Nimmo
Alexander Nimmo | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1783[1] |
| Died | 20 January 1832[1] (Aged 49) |
| Nationality | British/Irish (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) |
| Occupation | Engineer/Architect |
Alexander Nimmo FRSE MRIA MICE HFGS (1783 – January 20, 1832) was a Scottish civil engineer and geologist active in early 19th-century Ireland.
Life and career
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Nimmo was born in Cupar, Fife in 1783, the son of a watchmaker, and grew up in Kirkcaldy.[2] He may have been educated at Kirkcaldy Burgh School,[3][4] then studied at the University of St Andrews and University of Edinburgh. His first role was as Rector of Inverness Royal Academy 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 for his contributions to marine geology. His proposers were George Steuart Mackenzie, Alexander Christison, and Thomas Allan.[5]
From 1811, he worked in Ireland as an engineer, with his first major task being for the Commission for the Reclamation of Irish Bogs.[5] This was apparently on the recommendation of Thomas Telford. In 1814, he designed a new harbour at Dunmore in Waterford. In 1815, he improved the navigation on the river at Cork and improved the adjacent harbour at Cobh. Beginning in 1820, he was employed by the Irish Fisheries Board to make extensive surveys and recommendations for Irelands fishing harbours.[6]
In 1830, he was commissioned by the Knight of Kerry to design a new village on Valentia Island in County Kerry, which was later named Knightstown.[7] His maritime engineering designs combined classical motifs with utilitarian functionality.[1] Among other projects, he is credited with designing the County Kerry village of Knightstown,[7] the road from Galway to Clifden, and the harbour of Roundstone in Connemara.[8]
In the 1830s he redesigned over 30 harbours on the western Irish coast. At Limerick, one of his major projects was the Wellesley Bridge which was constructed between 1824-35. (It is now known as the Sarsfield Bridge.)[6]
Nimmo died at his Dublin home on 20 January 1832.[2]
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
- Wilkins, Noël P., ed. (15 April 2009). Alexander Nimmo, Master Engineer, 1783–1832: Public Works and Civil Surveys. Irish Academic Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7165-2995-8.
References
- ^ a b c Fenlon, Jane; Maguire, Hugh (2010). An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Waterford (Revised ed.). Dublin: Wordwell Press/Government of Ireland, Department of the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government, National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. pp. 36–37.
- ^ a b "Alexander Nimmo". electricscotland.com. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
- ^ "Alexander Nimmo, Rector 1805 to 1811". Am Baile.
- ^ Walker, David (30 October 1876). "The Fife pulpit: a series of sketches of a number of ministers of various denominations, repr. from The Fife advertiser, enlarged [&c.]" – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
- ^ a b "Nimmo, Alexander". askaboutireland.ie. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
- ^ a b "Knightstown" (PDF). West Iveragh Settlements Local Area Plan. Kerry County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
- ^ Journal of the Clifden & Connemara Heritage Group, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1995.
