HISTORY - THE PACKHORSE BRIDGE

While whisky may be what made the river Livet famous, there is far more to this stretch of water than first meets the eye and the 12 miles of the Livet from here to its source high in the Ladder Hills, reek with as much history as distilling.

The picturesque bridge here is thought to have been built around the end of the 16th Century in connection with the nearby Blairfindy castle, next to the Glenlivet distillery. The bridge resembles many that were built at the time, and all three spans might have survived the ravages of time, had it not been for the infamous ‘Muckle spate’ in the August of 1829 which wreaked havoc throughout the district and took with it the third arch which linked the bridge with the west bank of the river.

The most famous account of the floods of that year was written by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder and he makes frequent mention of the destructive capacity of the Livet and the Avon ....

“The Bridge of Livet near Minmore, supposed to be as old as the ancient hunting seat of Castleton, on the left consisted of three long straggling picturesque arches, hopping as it were from one group of rocks to another, rather than springing boldly from bank to bank, its very plan sufficiently marking its extreme antiquity. Nothing could be more lovely than this little scene when I saw it formally. Three neat clean-looking cottages, built in a row, lined a magnificently constructed new road in front of them. Beside and behind them were gay little gardens, intermingled trees, and the river rushing clear and sparkling, in little rapids among the ledges of the smooth worn schistose rock, the whole scene being beautifully closed in by the banks of hanging wood”

“About six o’clock on the fatal night of the 3rd” said a women I conversed with who lived in one of the small cottages next to the bridge “the waters cam‘ doon in a moment, whan we waur a’ oot gatherin’ sticks in the brae yonder, and filled the road. A whillie after that it fell a wee, an’ some o’ Smith the merchants goods were gotten oot, but doon it cam’ again, swept awa’ Smith’s gable, an a’thegither, and we didna’ get oor fit in ower the door again till sax o’clock on Tuesday evening.”

The metamorphosis produced by two devastating days was sad indeed. the old bridge much demolished, and one of it’s arches gone - the trees torn away - the gardens annihilated - the new road in front dug into a great ravine filled with water - the gable of the houses gone - all of them injured.

During this great flood, the Avon and the Livet spread chaos down their courses destroying crops, grazing land and houses. as one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit Moray, ended a long hot summer with torrential rain. In a period of just 48 hours the floods resulted, throughout Moray, in the total destruction of over 60 homes, 22 bridges, 20 other buildings and 1000 acres of farmland. Six people died, over 600 families were made homeless and damaged totalled about £100,000 - damage that would run into many millions today.

A whisky smuggler

Glenlivet welcomes you to explore its tracks and byways.