William Bald left school in Burntisland at the age of 12 and, after a brief period of schooling in Edinburgh, was apprenticed to John Ainslie in 1803.
15 Facts About William Bald
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William Bald moved to Ireland by 1809, and at the age of 21 was embarking on his most significant period of work.
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William Bald was responsible for the construction and improvement of roads, harbours and railways throughout Ireland.
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From 1826 to 1830, William Bald worked in France, before returning to Ireland.
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William Bald was responsible for Ireland's first suspension bridge, at Kenmare in County Kerry.
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William Bald had the vision of building the road along the foot of the cliffs, some of them over 100 metres high.
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William Bald decided to blast the cliff face which then fell down onto the foreshore to form the base for the new road.
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In 1834 William Bald had the idea of opening up a limestone quarry on the Cavehill, near Belfast, and transporting the stone down to Belfast Harbour by a railway.
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William Bald continued to trade until 1896 when it became bankrupt.
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In 1839 William Bald was appointed as engineer to the Clyde River Trust in Scotland, where he was involved in the deepening and improving of the river, as well as redesigning Troon harbour.
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William Bald was an innovative and imaginative civil engineer, whose work was highly regarded in the various countries in which he worked.
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William Bald was a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
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In 1816, William Bald was elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and he became a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1822.
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William Bald married his first wife, Anne, in 1809 in Scotland, and in 1823 he married his second wife, Matilda Barrett, in Ballina.
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William Bald died in 1857 and is buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.