THE SPEY DAM AND GARVA BRIDGE

Thought I would highlight some great places to drive and explore while staying at Highland Holiday Cottages. As the mushroom season is still out of sight, you can use these drives to spot some great picking location for later in the year. Thanks to the newtonmore web site for the info.

Exploration No 1 -

The Spey Dam and Garva Bridge:

This short tour is especially good in a summer evening

Take the Fort William road out of Newtonmore as far as Laggan, where, instead of following the main road sharp left over the bridge, turn off to the right along the single track road. The Laggan Shop can be found here, It's open seven days a week and is well stocked with provisions, including tasty hot snacks.

Carry on up the single track road, through several sharp bends, and eventually sharp left over a bridge, with the Spey Dam wall visible upstream to your right, continuing up the hill until you see the loch in front of you. On your left is the ancient hill fort of Dun na Lamh - if you feel like a spot of exercise, stop near the river bridge and walk along the track to the left at the base of the hill (before the road starts climbing) - follow this round until the obvious track up hill takes you eventually to the summit of this fort, with superb views all round.

The loch of the Spey Dam is stocked regularly by the Badenoch Angling Association and provides good fly fishing, with boats available - strictly fly only, and a permit is required (you can buy one from Highland Holiday Cottages), or from Laggan Shop or local Petrol Stations.

Carry on along the length of the loch, and just beyond the end, where you reach a junction, turn right, over the narrow bridge, then continue past Garvamore, where the remnants of the General Wade Barracks can be seen on your right

A short while further on, you will come to Garva Bridge, a solid double span stone bridge, built by General Wade - part of the route of the Corrieyarick Pass from Fort Augustus to Laggan. Anywhere from the end of the Spey Dam, you are likely to encounter many red deer, very close to the road - even jumping out in front of you, so take care, and have the camera ready! You will not find a better opportunity to photograph deer in the wild than hereabouts. As long as you are early in the morning, or approaching dusk, the deer will be plentiful.

At Garva Bridge, you can stop and picnic, enjoy the upper reaches of the River Spey, or, if the gate on the other side of the bridge is not locked, you can continue to drive on for several more miles, as far as Melgarve - a really wild and remote place, and as far upstream on the River Spey as it's possible to get with a car. This section of the road is particularly rewarding when the deer are rutting, in October - but they will be very, very close to you, and they are aggressive at this time - so DON'T get out of the car

Return by the same route - sorry, this is the only route we feature that has no real alternative for return, but it's well worth the trip anyway!