In 2015, Ney & Partners, in collaboration with the London-based architectural practice William Matthews Associates, won the competition to design a connecting bridge at Tintagel, in northern Cornwall – one of England’s most visited historic sites. Building the new bridge involved making a visible impact on the landscape and the ruins of a medieval castle. Creating a 60-metre-long bridge, 30 metres above the sea, therefore proved to be no mean feat for a number of reasons. The bridge received the Structural Steel Design Award, presented in London in October 2020.

In the early Middle Ages, Tintagel was an important centre where power, trade and culture converged. In the 13th century, a castle was built on a promontory jutting out from the coastline. Over the last 800 years, the ground beneath the structure has been increasingly eroded away by the surrounding sea. The result today is a marvellously weathered site, where wind, sea and rocks have free rein, and the ruin, split in two, bears witness to the erosive forces of the sea. The fort’s reputation is based primarily on imaginative love stories, such as that of King Arthur, rather than being a heritage site bearing witness to the past.