HISTORY - CAMPDALMORE
Just to the north of the village the car park at Campdalmore marks the end of the Tomintoul Spur of the Speyside Way . If you feel, energetic a 45 mile long walk which will take you from here to the Moray coast, - a walk which passes through some wonderful countryside, as it runs parallel to the route of the river Avon and then the Spey to the sea.
The road heading up the hill next to the old Scots pine plantation goes towards Campdalmore Farm. This road follows the original route of the old military road which continues northwards beyond Tomintoul to Grantown on Spey. The main public road, which is now the A939, deviates from the original route of the military road in places, as it does here, but for the most part, follows the route that the original road builders chose. Planned by Caulfield, general Wade’s successor in the mid Eighteenth Century, the road was built to improve communications to this part of the Highlands, to help suppress further Jacobite unrest after Culloden in 1746 and to control, cattle thieves, or reivers as they are known, whisky smugglers and other pastimes indulged in by Highlanders of the time!
A short way along the farm road from the car park lies a cairn erected in memory of Dr Victor Gaffney, a local historian who loved the view from this spot. His book the Lordship of Strathavon provides a detailed history of the area and a shorter condensed version of his work ‘Tomintoul its Glens and its People’ is available in the local library. The view up the Glen on a clear day is wonderful and will remain in your memory long after you depart. The shimmering river, pronounced locally as the ‘A’an’, twists and turns as it emerges from the deeper recesses of the Cairngorms. In the distance the remote tors of Ben Avon dominate the horizon, often flecked with snow patches lasting well into the summer. The lonely waters of the Caplich tumble through the impressive Ailnach gorge to join the Avon just beyond Tomintoul, while in the foreground the prominent white house at the Cults, and on the opposite bank the ruin at Lynachork, mark the ford, much used as a crossing point on the river in the days before a bridge was built for the military road further downstream. Today the splashing of the reivers stolen cattle which once crossed the river in droves on their journey to the west is replaced by the leaping of the salmon, in what must be one of the clearest, cleanest rivers in Scotland .
Stories are sometimes told of caves higher up the Water of Ailnach, as it flows through what must be one of the most spectacular gorges in Scotland . While not visible from here, it is said these caves once sheltered outlaws and one in particular, Sheumas an Tuim or ‘James of the Hill’ who terrorised the local population in pursuit of his family feud against the Speyside Grants of Ballindalloch in the 17th century. After several atrocious murders he was eventually caught and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle . One day he spotted an acquaintance from Tomnavoulin passing the bars of the prison and shouted at him to ask how things were on Avonside.
“All the better for being rid of you” came the rash reply.
Sometime later James escaped with the help of a rope concealed inside a keg of butter. Returning to Tomnavoulin he enticed this man and his son out of their house on some pretext, chopped off their heads and threw them into the lap of his enemy’s wife! It is told that this murderous vagabond continued his violent activities for some years before being pardoned in 1640, dying an undeservedly peaceful death many years later in his bed.
A whisky smuggler
Glenlivet welcomes you to explore its tracks and byways. |
