The Muckle Spate was a great flood in August 1829, which devastated much of Strathspey, in the north east of Scotland. Muckle is a Scots word for 'much' or 'great'. It began raining on the evening of 2 August 1829, and continued into the next day when a

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

broke over the

Cairngorms The Cairngorms () are a mountain range in the eastern Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national parks of Scotland, national park (the Cairn ...

. To the south, the River Dee rose rapidly above its normal level - 15 ft (4.6 m) in places (27 ft at Banchory). The Rivers

Nairn Nairn (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Highland (council area), Highland Council council areas of Scotland, area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness, at the point where the River Nair ...

Findhorn Findhorn ( or ''Inbhir Èireann'') is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Kinloss, Scotland, Kinloss, and abou ...

, Lossie and Spey were affected, to the north.

Damage

As well as flooding, many bridges were washed away, including those over the

Linn of Dee The River Dee () is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through southern Aberdeenshire to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen. The area it passes through is known as Deeside, or Royal Deeside in the region betw ...

and

Linn of Quoich Linn of Quoich is a waterfall of Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the isl ...

. The original

Mar Lodge Mar Lodge is a sporting lodge to the west of Braemar and the principal building on the Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was built in 1895, replacing an earlier building, by Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife. Location Mar Lodge is a ...

was affected.

Carrbridge Carrbridge (, ) is a village in Badenoch and Strathspey in the Scottish Highlands. It lies off the A9 on the A938, west of Skye of Curr and southeast of Tomatin, near Bogroy. It has the oldest stone bridge in the Highlands and the nearby a ...

's most famous landmark, the old bridge, built in 1717, from which the village is named, was severely damaged and left in the condition we see today. Homes were lost in

Kingston, Moray Kingston on Spey is a small coastal village in Moray, Scotland. It is situated immediately north of Garmouth at the western side of the mouth of the River Spey on the coast of the Moray Firth. Kingston was founded in 1784 and was named after K ...

, a small village on the Moray Firth coast, at the mouth of the River Spey. Five

fishing boats rescued residents trapped by the floods on the plain of

Forres Forres (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the County of Moray, Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin, Moray, Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several ...

. Across the north-east between six and eight individuals lost their lives, 22 bridges and 60 houses were destroyed and 600 families were made homeless. The Muckle Spate is remembered in a poem of the same name by David Grant, written circa 1851, describing the effect on the parish of Strachan.

River Findhorn

The spate was a

natural disaster A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

unparalleled in the historic record of the north-east of Scotland described as one of "the most severe catastrophic floods in modern UK history". Based on the eyewitness accounts recorded by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder it has been possible to estimate peak flows down the main river of up to 1,484 m3/sec and 451 m3/sec on its tributary the

River Divie River Divie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Abhainn Divie'') is a river in Moray, Scotland, that is tributary to the River Findhorn. It begins near the Moray boundary, close to the ''Lùb Ghlas'' (shieling), from the junction of an unnamed stream with the All ...

. It is at

Randolph's Leap Randolph's Leap (also known as the Brig of Rannoch) is an SSSI and area of countryside in Moray, Scotland. The area surrounds the River Findhorn and is named after the point at the river where the sheer rock banks are closest. According to le ...

that the Findhorn river is at its most spectacular in spate. Here there are two markers indicating the height the river reached in 1829 and it is said that the

butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

at nearby Relugas caught a

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

above the normal river level in his

umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is usually designed to protect a person against rain. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used when protec ...

Footnotes

Sources

* * * Floods in Scotland Badenoch and Strathspey 19th-century floods in Europe 1820s floods 1829 natural disasters 1829 in Scotland 1820s disasters in the United Kingdom August 1829 19th-century floods in the United Kingdom {{Scotland-hist-stub