The light was so wonderfully clear and bright as I drove the A95 towards Grantown-on-Spey that I couldn't resist stopping for a closer look at the picturesque old Bridge of Avon. Its setting was gorgeous, enclosed by the River Avon's steep banks, where winter beeches reached up to a deep blue sky. With an entrance arch to Ballindalloch Castle and a Gothic-style gatehouse attached to the far end of the bridge, the scene was entrancing.
Like all the stone bridges to be seen today around Strathspey, the Bridge of Avon is a survivor of repeated floods. Opened in 1800, a plaque records that the river rose 23 feet during the Muckle Spate (big flood) of 1829, which destroyed numerous other bridges over the River Spey and its tributaries. When there is heavy rain or rapid snowmelt on the mountains, these watercourses can rise to fearsome heights. This attractive structure carried A95 traffic until a modern road bridge was built in 1991 and is now only used by pedestrians.
I was visiting the northwest Cairngorms for a long weekend of walking. My mission
