UK 2014, Kingussie and Ruthven Barracks

Heather, Don and I set out to find the tourist bureau in Kingussie and hopefully find out how to hire a car for a day. We wandered the streets of Kingussie with the local map in hand.

The oldest house in Kingussie,. It used to be part of the Folk Museum but now that the
museum has moved to a new facility it sits empty. It is right opposite the Iona Gallery
and, when it was the museum, provided a lot of traffic.

The door of an old church that had been taken over by the local council and now
seems to be attached to the local community leisure centre.

Heather found a little lane into an old cemetery. The church is no longer there. She was
thrilled to find a stone listing a Davidson.

The Bank of Scotland is in a lovely old building.

We had a cappuccino in Pam's Café and the two gentlemen working there were very helpful. One checked the next door garage for car rental and found that the one at the other end of the village does rent cars. They also told us how to get to Ruthven Barracks and told us (quite emotionally) that it was the last place that the Scottish Standard was flown.
We walked around town, booked the car for tomorrow,  then returned back to the house for lunch. We then set out, past the train station, on Ruthven Rd.

It has been raining here for at least a week and a half and the River Spey has burst its banks

Even the local Shinty pitch was flooded.

We walked over three bridges that normally crossed the river and creeks however now all the land, on both sides of the bridges and road joining them, was covered with swirling water. Past 3 confused horses with very little land to stand on, under the A9 and then saw this view:

This motivated us to keep walking as the barracks looked far more picturesque than we had anticipated.

We had been told at Pam's Café (now owned by Nikki) that all the rain would have filled the moat. Actually
the loch, river and moat had all merged.

We passed a field of lovely, shaggy, stocky horses. All very friendly, looking for food.

The setting is beautiful, surrounded by water, on a rise, in the centre of the valley with hills all
around and mountains in the distance.

The barracks were built by the Hanoverians (English) in response to the Jacobite (Scottish) uprisings.
This and 3 other barracks were supposed to "bring peace to the Highlands" and guarded major
military highways.

The 2 barrack buildings on either side of a parade ground were designed to hold 120 soldiers.
The Scottish attacked and were repelled but then the English surrendered the barracks after a siege.

They hoped that Bonnie Prince Charlie would join them there but, shortly after the capture of the barracks,
he sent word that "every man should find their own way as best they could", admitting defeat. The Scottish
burned the barracks and left it much as it is today.

A flock of swans on the loch.

Kayakers taking advantage of the high water.

As we left the wind had dropped, providing reflections in the floodwaters.

Back past the horses.

It was getting cold as the sun was setting behind the hills. We ran into a local photographer and talked light, photographs, golden eagles and how much he liked his time in Edmonton (go figure) as we snapped sunset pictures before heading home.