The Muckle Spate was a great flood in August 1829, which devastated much of Strathspey, in the north east of Scotland. (Muckle is a word for 'much' or 'great', chiefly used in North East England and Scotland.) 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 acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are somet ...

broke over the

Cairngorms The Cairngorms ( gd, Am Monadh Ruadh) are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national park (the Cairngorms National Park) on 1 ...

. 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 (; gd, Inbhir Narann) is a town and royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness, at the point where the River Nairn enters the Moray Firth. It is the t ...

Findhorn Findhorn ( gd, Inbhir Èir 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, and about 5 m ...

, Lossie and

Spey Spey may refer to: *Spey River (disambiguation) *Spey casting, a fly fishing technique developed on the River Spey *Rolls-Royce Spey, an early turbofan engine * HMS ''Spey'', the name of seven ships of the Royal Navy * For spey-wife -- see Völva a ...

were affected, to the north.

Damage

As well as flooding, many bridges were washed away, including those over the Linn of Dee and

Linn of Quoich Linn of Quoich is a waterfall of Scotland.Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer map series, sheets 309-470 See also *Waterfalls of Scotland Much of Scotland is mountainous; western areas of the Highlands enjoy a wet climate. The more steeply ...

. 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 ( sco, Carrbrig, gd, Drochaid Chàrr) 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 i ...

'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 Kin ...

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

. 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 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 Divie. It is at

Randolph's Leap Randolph's Leap is an SSSI and area of countryside in Moray, Scotland. The area surrounds the River Findhorn and is actually named after the point at the river where the sheer rock banks are closest, where according to legend Thomas Randolph, ...

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 pantry. Some al ...

at nearby Relugas caught a

salmon Salmon () is the common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...

above the normal river level in his

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

Footnotes

Sources

* * * Floods in Scotland Badenoch and Strathspey 1829 floods 1829 in Scotland {{Scotland-hist-stub