Dulnain Bridge
There are Scottish Crossbills, Crested Tits, Buzzards, Golden Eagles and, most famously in the Dulnain Bridge area, Ospreys. Villagers were disappointed by the village s absence from the map of the Outsider Festival that took place in the Highlands. The village has had a few well known residents including Charlie Whelan, who worked as an assistant to Gordon Brown for several years, before opting to move north. Andy Picheta and Rebecca Ferrand, both had careers in the television industry before taking over at Muckrach Lodge Hotel. The surrounding forests of Caledonian Pines contain many rare species, including birds such as the endangered Capercaillie and the main population of twinflower - Linnaea borealis is found in Curr Wood on the southern side of the village.The protest took place on 5 July 2007. The march was in aid of a number of villagers concerned about Dulnain Bridge s absence to popular Highland culture. The village comprises two communities.
On the other side of the main road is the river, with Dulnain Bridge over it. As the ice moved along it ground down and shaped the rock.
The village was compared to fictional village Brigadoon, a story about a village that appears just once every one hundred years. On the other side of the bridge is a park and children s playground. There are several golf courses in the area around Dulnain Bridge, including the Boat of Garten course, which has been rated as the 39th best in Britain. Archie is a highland cow who resides in the front field at Muckrach Lodge Hotel.
There are 2 hotels - the award winning Tigh-na-Sgaith The village hall and church are located on the main road in Dulnain Bridge, next to the village shop and garage. Coordinates: 57°18′16″N 3°39′54″W / 57.3045°N 3.6651°W / 57.3045; -3.6651 Dulnain Bridge (Scottish Gaelic: Drochaid Thulnain) is a village in Strathspey, next to the meeting of the River Dulnain and the River Spey, three miles south-west of Grantown-on-Spey, in the Scottish Highlands and the Highland council area. The bridge was swept away in a flood in 1829, but was re-built.
As the ice melted, it left smooth, exposed rock in some places and a mixture of boulder and clay in other areas. In 2007, nearly two hundred people from Dulnain Bridge and more from the surrounding area gathered to watch or take part in a protest march from the Dulnain Bridge town hall, across the bridge and through much of the village, before returning to the town hall. The traditional counties of Inverness-shire and Morayshire are separated by the bridge, which has existed for centuries. The village lies near to the A95, in the Cairngorms National park.
It features farming machinery that has been used for decades in the fields around the Dulnain Bridge area. The council describe it as a collection of implements from a bygone age and the machinery is donated by local residents. Organisers of the march spoke of how they thought Dulnain Bridge disappears from people s minds.
Around 18,000 years ago Dulnain Bridge was covered by a sheet of glacier ice. Dulnain Bridge itself is centred to the north of the bridge, and this particular part of the village lies in Morayshire.
Red Squirrels also reside in the woods. . The crofting community of Skye-of-Curr stretches for a mile to the south, and this is in Inverness-shire. The main attraction at Dulnain Bridge is the Speyside Heather Centre, which has a retail outlet and a cafe.
The march was to raise awareness of the village. The march was the start of a campaign to get Dulnain Bridge on the map . The population is estimated at less than two hundred, and the surrounding area is popular with tourists, as it is surrounded by mountains.
The problem for residents is that, like the mythical village of Brigadoon, Dulnain Bridge keeps disappearing from the map, opined one resident. He has made a picture-postcard setting for nearly ten years. In the north of the village and next to the roches moutonnees (see above), is the display of farm machinery, set up by the Dulnain Bridge & Vicinity Community Council.
Moray, Badenoch and Straphypey Enterprise assisted the creation of the project. Dulnain Bridge is the starting point of the famous Strathspey Railway, an old steam train that runs from Dulnain through part of the Highlands to Aviemore and a whole trip takes around and hour and a half, and is run primarily by volunteers. There are Pictish carved stones nearby and two Stone Age coffins were found in the 1880s in a burial cairn in Curr Wood. At the north end of the village sit a display of volcanic rocks called the roche moutonnées.
