SKYE OF CURR

For the October walk, we set off down the A9, turning off at Carrbridge and heading for the little village of Dulnain Bridge and the adjacent township of Skye of Curr. We actually met up at the Speyside Heather Centre so that we would have no distance to drive for our tea and cakes at the end of the walk.

Dulnain Bridge and Skye of Curr are actually two separate settlements, but they are closely linked. Indeed, Dulnain Bridge was once known as Bridge of Churr. Skye of Curr derives from the Gaelic Sgiath Churr. Sgiath means wing - as in wing of a house and Churr means corner or end. You can make of that what you will, but I think it depicts an offshoot of the main settlement. Dulnain means flat place or field by the river.

Of some interest, maybe, is that Dulnain Bridge lies within the old county of Moray and Skye of Curr lies within Inverness-shire. 

Car park of the Speyside Heather Centre means car park of the Speyside Heather Centre and here we are at that place, getting ready to go.

And off we have gone.

They take their cross-country skiing seriously in these parts.

We are off - along the A95. We don't often walk along busy roads, but in this case it wasn't 

for long.

We soon became a bit more rustic and this was presaged by the flight of geese overhead.

Well, it wasn't really rustic, but we moved onto the old road - white lines, but no cars.

Aspen leaves. The stripe of green on the yellow leaves is pretty strange. The Aspen itself is a bit strange as trees grow. It suckers like most poplars, of which it is one. So new trees will spring up some distance from the parent. They don't like shade and they are relatively scarce in the UK as a whole, being most common in the Highlands.

They were considered sacred and were thought to be able to "talk" to the spirits as their leaves are never still. This trait also gave rise to their Gaelic nickname of Mother-in Law's tongue. However, the early Christians couldn't live with something that could speak to spirits with magical powers, so the Aspen was supposed to have been the tree used for Christs's crucifix. The trembling leaves then signified that the tree was shaking with shame at what it had become.I won't go into the paradoxical and ironic weirdness of trying to say a tree couldn't possibly have magical powers and then ascribing to that same tree, the ability to shake with shame.

Views across to the Cairngorms over the Spey.

From the road we walked into Curr Wood. 

Curr Wood is famous as one of about 50 places in Britain where Twinflower is found. In fact, the flower is so common here that it is sometimes known as the Twinflower Wood.

Twinflower is one of our most delicate and smallest native flowers. It is only found in native pinewoods and is a relic of the last Ice Age.

We didn't see any,despite it being so allegedly common in these woods, but you can see it on the internet and in books - and here it is. Pretty isn't it.

This is us at the entrance to the wood. 

The flower is much better looking.

 

This should be the caption for the photo of us sitting at the entrance to the Wood.

Just off to the left of the entrance to the Wood there was this stone. I am guessing Harris was a dog, but who can tell - I could find nothing on the internet.

I am not sure whether the stone related to the large house nearby.

This is Broomhll House. You can stay in the nearby cottage. 

Broomhill House was built in 1915 for Sir Alfred Booth, an industrialist and shipping magnate, who sat on the Cunard board at the time of the great ocean liners like the Queen Mary. So, he probably had a bob or two.

Rowan tree stems.

A view over the Spey to the Cromdale Hills.

Not only did we not see the Twinflower, but we also missed the Pine hoverfly. That is not too strange as it is very rare. It is restricted in the UK to Curr Wood and Anagach Wood at Grantown (where we have also walked). We didn't see it at Anagach Woods either!

It needs rotting pine stumps to breed and survive. Ironically, the widespread felling of native pinewoods in the past probably ensured the survival of the species. Conservation of the native pinewoods more recently has had the unintended side effect of reducing felling and so stumps for the hoverfly larvae to grow in them.

It just goes to show that the circle of life is not as simple as people think.

So, stumps are provided with ready-made holes for the hoverfly in Curr Woods.

To celebrate the existence of Twinflowers and Pine Hoverflies, Maureen gave us all a sweetie.

Here we are walking past what is probably a remnant tree from the pinewoods felled to make room for agriculture.

Rain sweeping through the Cairngorms'

Sheep lying down. Bear these in mind for the lesson in geomorphology coming up later on. Anyone that stops reading now should be ashamed!

That includes Maureen and Janet who both burst into tears at the thought of geo anything.

Dave was so upset at the prospect that he decided to become a hermit.

Sharon tried to escape in the only nearby vehicle.

Dave wondered if someone would wheel him away.

We are soon back into Dulnain Bridge and find ourselves next to an old church. This is known locally as The Old Tin Church, for obvious reasons. Crinkly tin buildings used to be found all over the Highlands, but they are becoming much less common. This church was erected in 1914 and, following amalgamation of the congregation with the United Free Church in 1928, it was used as a hall.

We cross the River Dulnain. The photos are of up and down stream from the bridge.

After crossing the river we are in the centre of the village, where you can see the local garage dating from the 1930's. The garage frontage is a fine example of the architecture of the time.

Maureen couldn't resist a peek inside.

Just opposite the garage, you can walk down by the riverside, so we did.

Three old men take a rest on the bench by the river.

Dulnain Bridge and Skye of Curr, in particular, were improved by Sir James Grant and others of his family throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. He gave local agricultural workers good ground for the formation of crofts and farmsteads. The evidence for these still exists. Old maps also show a large concentration of limekilns along the Skye of Curr road. Lime was, of course, important in improving the fertility of land.

This agricultural heritage is celebrated with an exhibition of old farm machinery on the outskirts of the village.

If you know what they all do, you are obviously a lot older than you look.

I was going to do this as a quiz, but I thought Dave would be the only one who would know and his farming life would give him an unfair advantage.

This is a horse rake from about 1900. It is not used for combing horse's manes, but it is a horse pulled haymaker.

This is a turnip driller.

This was a 1915 root cutter. It cost £3 and cut up turnips and the like for feeding to livestock.

Horse drawn ploughs.

A potato digger.

Grubbers for tearing up weeds and roots.

Remember the sheep lying down? Well they have a link to the geomorphology that surrounded our lunch stop.
This was at the Roches Moutonnee, where there was a handy picnic table set out just for us. After lunch we went on a little wander round the rocks and learnt ever so much about them. If you weren't there, you can read all about them in the next few photos.

I am so glad that we have moved on from the world of wigs slicked down with mutton fat. I seem to remember, also, that the rocks were supposed to look like sheep lying down - and just to remind you, here are a couple sheep lying down followed by a photo of the rocks.

Hardly any difference, is there. They certainly look more like sheep than wigs.

At the top of the rocks we looked at the viewfinder, which helpfully showed what was obscured by the trees.

Even obscured by the trees, the view from behind was better than from the front.

We found this on one of the Scots Pine trees at the Roches Moutonnee site. I think this is something called epicormic growth, where new shoots form from buds lying beneath the bark of a tree. It is almost like a whole new green world attached to the tree branch.

Walking back to the village, we spotted this kestrel taking a rest.

The walk was not t
hat long or strenuous, but the community had laid on a defibrillator for us, just in case.

He was a bright fellow.

Once we were back through the village we took the path through the woods towards the River Dulnain. This is labelled as the Old Laundry path, but I cannot find out anything about the Old Laundry.

There were some nice views of the river.

There were also some nice views across to Muckrach Castle, which originally dates from the 1589 by John Grant of Freuchie and it was the original seat of the Grants of Rothiemurchus. It lay in ruins for hundreds of years and was restored in the 1980's. It is now self catering accommodation and 10 people can stay for anywhere between £1045 and £3365 a week.

From the riverside, we walked back up through the woods to the Skye of Curr road, heading towards tea and cakes.

Dave used his mobile to phone ahead and order some cakes for Sandra, who had thought of nothing else since she arrived at the car park hours ago.

When we got to the Heather Centre, we sat outside and watched the squirrels. You had to be there, because you cannot tell from the photo that there was a squirrel there.

Tea and cakes.

We had a great walk and the weather was remarkably kind to us despite the forecast of incessant rain.

Looking forward to the weekend away next month.