Beginnings – The 1808 Village Plan

In 1808, a ‘Plan of the Intended Village at the Bridge of Carr’ was drawn out. At this time, the inhabitants of Duthil Parish lived at nearby Dalnahaitnach, Foregin and Slochd. The Old Bridge of Carr had been built in 1717 as a footbridge. In 1791, a new toll bridge built for wheeled transport bore first the Kinveachy to Dulsie Bridge military road and, from 1803, the Perth to Inverness road. This T-junction at the new bridge was considered a “settlement site in waiting”.

The first building near the bridge was an inn. The first innkeeper was George Ellis Jr., the son of a Huntly weaver who had relocated to oversee work at the Grantown-on-Spey Linen Company’s factory. The 1808 village plan outlined 70 plots. This included 1.5-acre croft plots north of the bridge along the new main road (today Inverness Road). These plots were let quickly, but by 1860 only about a dozen plots had been developed south of the bridge. Carrbridge did not progress from a hamlet to a village until 1898, when the Highland railway line opened its Aviemore to Inverness section. An old holiday guide refers to Carrbridge as “a quiet holiday village on the fringes of nowhere in particular”. Yet 150 years after the 1808 plan was drawn up, Carrbridge would be booming as the first ski-centre in Scotland.

World Wars I & II

During the first World War (1914-18), 400 German prisoners of war were encamped at nearby Inverlaidnan and employed felling timber.

During the 1939-45 World War, a company of the Canadian Forestry Corps was stationed in Duthil. They were again employed in timber felling and known locally as ‘Newfies’. They lived in the village hall before building Camp No.1 – Newfundland-style log huts built of unfinished trunks of young trees, with gaps stopped up with moss. Many married local girls, who accompanied their husbands to Canada after the war. Around ten ‘Newfies’ settled in the parish. They displayed their physique and bravado by jumping off the Old Coffin Bridge into the deep pool – a dangerous act still practised to this day by local youngsters.

In May 1940, the British Government appealed for civilian volunteers to form a home guard “to assist in the defence of the British Isles if and when the German forces attempted an invasion”. Large numbers of men from the Forestry Units volunteered. By 1942, the less well-defended areas of the north-east of Scotland were considered to be vulnerable to invasion. Hence, the military authorities saw a need for a mobile force, which, in the event of an invasion, could be assembled and moved at short notice. Another appeal for volunteers to foresters followed and, within a fortnight, the 3rd Inverness (Newfoundland) Battalion Home Guard had a complement of over 700 men. It was the only Home Guard Unit composed entirely of men from overseas who were serving in Britain on specialised war work.

All training and exercises were carried out after working hours, at weekends and during leave. An assault course and rifle range were constructed at an abandoned logging site at Carrbridge. This training ground was used extensively by other Home Guard and regular army units. The British Home Guard was officially stood down on 31st December 1944, and the Newfoundland Battalion was represented at the National Home Guard stand-down parade in London that year. All members of the Forestry Unit who volunteered and served in the British Home Guard were awarded the Defence Medal.

Local schools

Prior to today’s Carrbridge Primary School opening in 1990, the school for the village was Duthil School – 1.5 miles east of the village on the Grantown road. Duthil School was built in 1877. Another school, dating from the late 18th century and the first in the district, was at Balnastraid near Duthil Church. There was also a girls’ school at The Glebe before it became church property.

To the west of the parish, a school at Battan served the children from Battan and Foregin (off the Inverness road near Battan Burn). Beside the ruin of this school is the ruin of a hospital, which used to tend casualties among men working on the construction of the Highland Railway.

Farther west, a school at Inverlaidnan served Dalnahaitnach. This school moved to Incharn, farther north, and in 1905 the children moved to a school at Slochd. The latter closed in 1959 and was demolished.

Local bridges

Bridge of Carr (Old Packhorse Bridge)

Erected in 1717 by Brigadier-General Sir Alexander Grant of Grant to provide passage for foot passengers, horses and stock and for burials to Duthil Churchyard (hence its other local name, “coffin bridge”). The bridge took six months to built and cost £100. The bridge specifications stipulated that it should be of “ane reasonable Breadth and Height as will Receive the water when in the greatest speat.” And it is – only the parapets of this bridge were washed away in the great flood of 1829 (the “muckle spate”).

A bridge for wheeled traffic – a toll bridge – was built in 1791 where the present bridge is now. The current bridge was built in the 1970s.

Sluggan Bridge

Up river via Station Road towards Dalnahaitnach, Sluggan Bridge was the second bridge to be built at this point on the river. General Wade’s military road, built in 1728, is about 2 miles up Station Road. To the north, the road runs down to Sluggan, where it crosses the Dulnain and continues on to Slochd.

Wade originally crossed the Dulnain with a ford, which was replaced in the 1760s with a low two-arch bridge. This was swept away during the great flood of 3rd August 1829 and replaced in the 1830s by the current large single-span bridge. Sustrans undertook major repairs to the bridge in 2001/2 as part of the National Cycle Network

Sluggan Bridge is category A listed and a scheduled monument. The Wade Road is an ancient right of way.

Ellan Bridge

Accessed from Station Road or along the river bank from the Old Garage, this wooden suspension bridge crosses the river Dulnain between Dalrachney Beag and Ellan. Erected in 1992 by Gurkha soldiers (who lived in the village hall while the work was carried out), it replaced an old bridge that had become unsafe.

Local churches

Duthil Church, Carrbridge

Opened in August 1909 and extensively renovated in 1976, costing £7,609.

The renovation included the remodelling of the chancel to house the pulpit, communion table and chair from the disused Old Parish church at Duthil. The pulpit is a memorial to the Rev. William Grant (an ancestor of Lady Turnbull, Reidhaven, Grantown), who had a long ministry in Duthil. The Communion table is in memory of the Rev. Patrick Grant, minister of Duthil in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From him were descended, through his daughter, a number of distinguished people commemorated by Duthil memorial tablets. They include Field Marshall Sir Patrick Grant and General Sir Henry Fane Grant. These tablets were ‘rescued’ and placed in the Duthil Chapel (formed in what was the rear of Carrbridge Church). Also on display are the memorial tablets and rolls of honour that were previously elsewhere in the Carrbridge building.

The transept was closed off to form a church hall. A feature of the renovation is the panelling at the back of the chancel which is floodlit, and the cross which is lit from the rear. The Women’s Guild provided a red carpet in the chancel. Oil-fired central heating was installed, boosted by radiators from Old Duthil Church.

The renovated church was dedicated by the Rev.Dr. Horace Walker, Secretary of the Church of Scotland Home Board. The opening ceremony was performed by the Moderator of the Presbytery of Abernethy, the Rev. James Boyd, Nethybridge.

Old Parish Church – Duthil

The first recorded church at Duthil was built around 1400 (probably on the site of an earlier building). The present church was built on the same site in 1826. The first of the two Grant of Grant mausoleums beside the church was built in 1837. The first Chief of Grant to be interred at Duthil was James Grant, third of Freuchy. His Last Will & Testament, dated 1553, ordered that he be buried in the parish church of Duthil. He died and was interred there in 1585.

The first Protestant minister, William Fraser, was inducted at Duthil in 1614, 54 years after the Reformation. The church, which was dedicated to St. Peter, has been rebuilt on several occasions; it was renovated just before World War I by Dr. Macgregor Chalmers.

In 1843 came the Disruption – the breaking away of the Free Church from the Established Church. For the following seven years, Presbyterians and their followers (the “men of Duthil”) worshipped in the open woods at Duthil for three hours every Sunday, summer and winter, until the Free Church was built in 1850. Its first minister was a Rev. John Logan.

Other sections of the church broke away from the Free Church in 1893 and a Union of the Free Churches was effected in 1900. In 1909, the United Free Church built a church and manse in Main Street, Carrbridge. In 1930, the Church of Scotland and the Free Churches united. The Free Church was sold in 1963 and services were held in the church hall, which is situated on the road up to the old church (now a private home).

Old Duthil Church closed for services in 1967 and from 4th March 1969, was deemed no longer in use. It was sold in 1974.

Religious Conduct in the 19th and 20th Centuries

In 1880, conduct on a Sunday was a serious business…

• To read Shakespeare or Scott on a Sunday was an unforgivable sin. However, to indulge in charitable gossip with your neighbour was allowed.
• It was permissible to cut tobacco with a knife, but NOT to cut string or a stick or vegetables for the broth. You daren’t peel potatoes on a Sunday before cooking them.
• You might wash your face on the Lord’s Day, but you were heading straight for perdition if you shaved or cut your nails.
• To escape eternal punishment, boots left unpolished on Saturday night had to remain unbrushed  over Sunday – but you might brush your beard without risk.
• There was no sin in taking horses to water to drink, but you might not take water to the horses.

In 1916, a call from church leaders for a total prohibition during wartime and until demobilisation was given support by the Kirk Session. It hoped that the Government would at once close the doors from which this terrible evil came forth as then, and only then, might we deservedly expect to win the war.

Local Persons of Distiction

Iain Beag Macandra of Dalnahaitnach (Little John Macandrew)

As his Gaelic name implied, Iain Beag Macandra was a small man, but a great archer. Mid-17th century, he joined Rose of Kilravoch*, who was pursuing Mackintoshes who had plundered Rose’s cattle. In the ensuing battle in Strathdearn, Macandrew killed the Chief of the reivers with an arrow. Macandrew knew that the reivers would want their revenge and follow him home. Later, when John saw strangers in the woods near Dalnahaitnach, he guessed that they had come to avenge their Chief’s death.

The strangers, thinking that John was just a young lad due to his small stature, offered him a bribe to take them to Iain Beag Macandra’s house (i.e. his own). John took the bribe. When they reached his house, John’s wife was home and, with great presence of mind, carried on the deception and told the strangers that her husband was out. She gave the strangers food and drink and sent John out to look for the master.

John climbed to the top of a tree near the door of his house. In the tree, he kept a bow and a supply of arrows. He cried out that the master was coming. As strangers hurried out one by one, John shot each one with an arrow.

A monument to Iain Beag Macandra was erected in memory of his great skill and cunning with the bow. It stands on the north side of the river Dulnain at Dalnahaitnach.

*Kilravoch Castle (pronounced ‘killrock’) has been the family seat of the Clan Rose since 1460. The present Chief of Clan Rose is Miss Elizabeth Rose, 25th Baroness. The gardens are renowned for a variety of trees, some centuries old. Kilravoch Castle is near Cawdor, Darnaway and Brodie Castles.

Professor Henry Calderwood Of Ard Na Coille, Station Road

Born Peebles, 10th May 1830, died 19th November 1897.

Henry Calderwood was ordained as pastor of Greyfriars Church, Glasgow, in 1856. From 1861-1864, he was an examiner in Mental Philosophy at Glasgow University. From 1866-1868, he was Lecturer in Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University. In 1868, he was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University.

Calderwood first visited Carrbridge in 1887 and stayed at the then ‘little Inn’ (“a more breezy, bracing resort could scarcely have been found”). From then on, the family spent four months of each succeeding year at Carrbridge. The keen bracing air, the varied drives and walks, the fishing and the solitude all combined to make Carrbridge a resort to be increasingly liked. After the first visit, “no other summer quarter were ever thought of”. After two seasons spent at the Inn, Calderwood bought a cottage under construction, ‘Ard Na Coille’. He gradually enlarged it and it grew to be the place where the Professor was to be found from early June to early October of each year.

At this time, Carrbridge was the home for Constitutional Free Churches. The comparatively advanced views of the Edinburgh professor were therefore not likely to be in his favour with the local population. However, the spontaneous kindliness and genuine Christianity of the man endeared him to the villagers. The minister of the village church, a Free Church, was a former student of Calderwood’s, who allowed the professor to act as his ‘curate’. Consequently, each summer, Calderwood would conduct an evening service in addition to the regular mid-day Gaelic service, which was immediately followed by an English service. One of the many note books found in Calderwood’s study after his death was headed ‘Subjects for Carr Bridge – 1898’. They were never delivered.

Many friends and colleagues were guests at ‘Ard Na Coille’. Rev.Dr. Black, Glasgow; Dr. Martini and Dr. McAllen, Manchester; Professors from Aberdeen, St. Andrews and Oxford Universities; men from American and Australian universities would turn up unexpectedly at Carrbridge. J.S. Blake, a frequent visitor to the area, wrote on one of his visits:

“I tramped the wood in meditative mood,
And lost my way, so called on Calderwood.
And sat upon his chair, and wondered not
He wrote so wisely in so fair a spot.”
J.S. Blake, 6th September 1891

Over the years, Calderwood noticed that the local youngsters did not seem to identify with the religious or social life of the district. He believed that this “induced some fall into loose habits or to seek their natural enjoyment by more or less clandestine methods”. (19th century parlance for vandalism perhaps?) He therefore proposed establishing a library and reading room, or having a hall where concerts could be held. Thus, a committee was formed. Lady Seafield gave over a site on the Main Street and in 1893, the Carrbridge Institute was opened. In the summer of 1897, Professor Calderwood’s last summer, he was presented with an illuminated address in honour of his services to the community. The marble tablet is still on the wall of the ‘Institute’ (today the village hall), although it is now almost unreadable.

Ref.: “The Life of Henry Calderwood” LL., F.A.S. published Hotter & Stoughton, London, 1900 p. 374, Chapter XV ‘Life in Carr Bridge’

Alexander Grant (known as Battan)

Born at Battangorm, Carrbridge, in 1856, he was the inventor of the ‘Grant Vibration Rod’ and the Rondello fiddle.

Having left school aged 8, Grant had a varied career as a ploughman, shepherd, draper, forester, grocer, butcher, gamekeeper, fisherman, hairdresser and fishing tackle merchant. He learned the drapery trade in Wales but, when his health broke down, returned to Scotland. And it was while employed in forestry work at Cullen that he became interested in “the rhythmic or vibratory qualities of wood”.

In 1894, Grant applied for, and was granted, a patent for his vibrating fishing rod invention. The application described this as “a non-slipping splice for fishing rods, golf club handles and other like articles.” In 1896, he demonstrated his fishing rod to the angling press of the day at Kingston-Upon-Thames. The rod design was unique. It was in 2, 3 and 4 sections, usually made of greenheart wood. Each section was joined to the other by overlapping splices, held in place by leather thonging. The invention took the angling world by storm. The constant vibrations of the wood throughout the rod made it possible to cast enormous distances with little effort. In an angling competition, Grant achieved a world record cast of almost 55 yards.

In 1900, Grant, who was crafting the rods himself, could no longer cope with the demand and sold the patent to Messrs. Playfair of Aberdeen. From this time, he centred his efforts on his other passion, fiddle-making, and invented the ‘Rondello’. This instrument had a distinctive disc shape and was hollow throughout. It is said that, after his first violin lesson at the age of 10, Grant refused to go back, because the tone of the teacher’s violin was so bad. Allowing for some exaggeration, this story nevertheless reflects his early interest in the instrument’s sound quality. The earliest known Grant fiddle dates from 1896. Several of Grant’s fiddles, and the Rondello, are in the collection of Inverness Museum and Art Gallery.

The Rondello Fiddle above can be seen at Inverness Museum.

Grant, who was a close friend of Scott Skinner, the composer and exponent of Strathspey fiddle playing, was leader for almost 40 years of The Highland Strathspey & Reel Society, founded in 1903. In fact, “Battan” Grant was known as the Scott Skinner of the Highlands.

Gateway To Health

When the Highland Railway was extended north via Carrbridge to Inverness, doctors began recommending that those seeking better health visit the glens and straths of the Highlands instead of the seaside.

Carrbridge has always attracted many visitors. Its high altitude, 850 feet above sea level, was considered beneficial for heart conditions and the resinous air of the pinewoods provided relief for chest complaints. Honey, once used widely for medicinal purposes, was produced in abundance. There were several beekeepers in the district, whose honeys were in great demand until the mid 1960s. Herbal remedies were made for human consumption. Bog myrtle brew, for example, was allegedly good for rheumatism.

A mineral well was situated at Auchterblair. The well was of chalybeate water – mineral water containing salts of iron, reported by an analyst of the water to be “free from organic matter and entirely free from organic pollution”. Locals used to drink directly from the spring using a metal cup on a chain. In 1989, hoping to build the image of Carrbridge as Strathspey’s holiday spa resort, the Community Council issued a challenge to Britain’s water diviners to find the lost well of Carrbridge. However, the well remains lost in the woods of Crannich.

1867 Map

1900 Map