Roy’s Roadss

The road-network from William Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland. 1747


William Caulfield. Major British Army. Inspector of Roads Major British Army. Inspector of Roads 



Grandson of William Caulfield, 1st Viscount Charlemont. Following the departure of General Wade in 1740, Caulfield became responsible for directing the Scottish military roads initiative-  further construction of new roads and bridges as well as upgrading. He was responsible for considerably  more road construction than his predecessor: about 900 miles of road and 600 bridges. Road-building was a completely separate enterprise from the Military Survey; in fact, Caulfield competed with Roy for staff and funding.   Four of Caulfield's roads were built, or partially built, by the time of the survey and this is reflected on the maps.  However, there were twenty more military roads, mostly supervised by Caulfield, which were not built until after Roy had completed his survey. 

During the '45 uprising Caulfield was quartermaster to Sir John Cope. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1751 but was always known as 'major' or 'governor'. The house he built outside Inverness still exists.    Throughout the 1740s, there are many minuted Commissioner references  to Col. David Watson and his assistant, Mr. Roy of the Military Survey. In 1747, the year in which the Military Survey was launched, Caulfield's road-building expenditure had reached a record £9,500; there followed a reorganisation in which many more assistants were allocated to Caulfield, no doubt thereby denying them to Watson and Roy.

Last updated Nov.2020