The River Spean flows from

Loch Laggan Loch Laggan is a freshwater loch situated approximately west of Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands. The loch has an irregular shape, runs nearly northeast to southwest and is approximately in length. It has an average depth of and is at its ...

in a westerly direction to join the

River Lochy The River Lochy flows southwest along the Great Glen from Loch Lochy to Loch Linnhe at Fort William in the West Highlands of Scotland. Its two major tributaries are the short River Arkaig which drains Loch Arkaig into Loch Lochy and the Riv ...

at Gairlochy in the

Great Glen The Great Glen ( ), also known as Glen Albyn (from the Gaelic "Glen of Scotland" ) or Glen More (from the Gaelic "Big/Great Glen"), is a glen in Scotland running for from Inverness on the edge of the Moray Firth, in an approximately straig ...

in the

West Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlan ...

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 island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Major tributaries of the Spean include the left-bank Abhainn Ghuilbinn and River Treig, the right-bank

River Roy A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...

and the left-bank river known as

The Cour ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

. The river is accompanied by the

A86 road The A86 is a major road in Scotland. It runs from the Great Glen at Spean Bridge to Kingussie and the Cairngorms National Park via Loch Laggan. It is a primary route for its entire length. The road was built as a parliamentary road by Thomas ...

for almost its entire length, running from (upper)

west to

Spean Bridge Spean Bridge () is a village in the parish of Kilmonivaig, in Lochaber in the Highland region of Scotland. The village takes its name from the Highbridge over the River Spean on General Wade's military road between Fort William and Fort A ...

. The river is spanned by a bridge carrying the

A82 road The A82 is a major road in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Inverness via Fort William, Highland, Fort William. It is one of the principal north-south routes in Scotland and is mostly a trunk road managed by Transport Scotland, who view it a ...

near its junction with the A86 at Spean Bridge. A minor road bridges the Spean just above the falls at Inverlair. Two further road crossings exist - a private estate road across the short stretch of river between upper Loch Laggan and the Laggan reservoir and a road traversing the top of

Laggan Dam Laggan Dam is a mass concrete gravity dam located on the River Spean south west of Loch Laggan in the Scottish Highlands. It forms the second reservoir for the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme. History The structure was built as part of the Lo ...

. The

West Highland Line The West Highland Line ( – "Iron Road to the Isles") is a railway line linking the ports of Mallaig and Oban in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow in Central Scotland. The line was voted the top rail journey in the world by readers of indepen ...

crosses the river near Tulloch Station and follows its north bank before re-crossing east of Spean Bridge. A branch of the railway formerly continued west beside the river from Spean Bridge, crossing it once again to the west of the village. At the end of the last ice age, Glen Spean and

Glen Roy Glen Roy (, meaning "red glen") in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland is a glen noted for the geological phenomenon of three loch terrace (geology), terraces known as the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy. The terrace ...

contained lakes dammed by ice with a surface elevation of at one point. The ice dam collapsed catastrophically around 11,500 years ago and five cubic kilometres of floodwater appear to have drained along the line of the Spean gorge occupied by the modern river.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spean Spean Lochaber

See also

References