THE SPEY 151 



Saint Adamnan is recorded as having been conducted by Saint 

 Columba himself when on his visit to the Picts north of the 

 Grampians, about the year 690, and although several churches 

 may have taken shape on these foundations, the fact remains, 

 it is believed, that Christian worship has been carried on 

 continuously on this spot since the seventh century. 



Loch Insh holds many pike and large trout. It and Loch 

 Alvie were the pike-fishing haunts of Colonel Thornton who, a 

 hundred years ago, as recounted in his Northern Tour, took 

 some monsters by means of his " greyhounds " or live-trout 

 baits attached to floats. It would be a good thing to continue 

 the destruction of the pike in this neighbourhood and in the 

 sluggish parts of the Spey. I am not aware that it is any 

 one's business to attend to this, but, during the war, the 

 Scottish Fresh Water Fisheries Committee, of which the writer 

 was a member, netted a fair number of pike, and also 

 experimented with eel fishing. Numbers of salmon certainly 

 spawn above this point, and leave their fry to descend through 

 the happy hunting-grounds of the natural enemies. Some 

 guide to the number of salmon to be found in the loch may be 

 got when it is stated that 275 were netted and sold in 1891, and 

 400 netted and sold in 1895. Since 1898 this netting of the 

 upper waters has been discontinued, but at the end of the sea- 

 son a very considerable number of fish have become distributed 

 over the upper Spey, as well as in the Feshie and Tromie. 



Below Loch Insh some really fine pools exist, but these have 

 for the most part fallen into neglect. Broken banks and 

 submerged and overhanging trees now make one or two of 

 them quite unfishable. Kinrara, where the famous Jean, 

 Duchess of Gordon, used to hold sway, and where she is buried, 

 has the fishing on the left bank, while Rothiemurchus has the 

 right bank. The havoc to the pools is, however, almost all on 

 the Kinrara side. 



For a considerable number of years the presence of salmon 

 in those waters has been considered practically past praying 

 for during the open season. A few people fished, and no one 

 caught anything unless he fished for trout, which, by the way, 

 are here quite worth catching, for many of them run to quite 

 good size in my experience. The keepers could always explain 

 why salmon were not to be expected, and by degrees the river 



