CHAPTER XL 



FINDHORN. 



ANGLING SEASON : February llth to October 10th. 

 NETTING SEASON : February llth to August 26th. 



District Fishery Board meets in Forres. William Grant, Esq., National Bank Buildings, 



Forres, is clerk. 



THE Findhorn is an interesting example of successive stages of 

 erosion in its long course of 62 i miles, and eventually of the com- 

 bat of sand, sea, and river in nature. It rises on the northern 

 slopes of Cam Mairg, the highest hill of the Monadhliath range, 

 situated about six miles north-west of Newtonmore in Inverness- 

 shire. The source is 2800 feet above sea-level, and the first descent 

 of the head streams is rapid to the lonely upper part of Strathdearn. 

 Many side streams drain a wide ellipse of hills, all of them over 2500 

 feet in height, which, as far down as Glen Mazeran, form the sky- 

 line of this mountain-valley tract. The name Strathdearn is applied 

 to the greater portion of the Findhorn course, and in it seems to lie 

 the origin of the present name of the river. The early name used 

 in thirteenth century charters was Earn, which sufficiently explains 

 the name of the Strath, while Findhorn is thought to be a corruption 

 of fionn-Ear-an, signifying the easterly flowing stream. 



Some distance below the new railway viaduct of the Highland 

 line, as it leaves Moy estate it enters a rocky gorge and the county 

 of Nairn. This gorge tends to deepen and become more precipitous 

 as the river proceeds, and at length becomes a veritable canon of 

 magnificent beauty, which forms the dominating character of the 

 river. When one thinks of the Findhorn one naturally pictures 

 this great winding and wooded defile, which continues some 23 

 or 24 miles to Darnaway. Near Dulsie Bridge the river forms a 

 succession of black and deep pools, linked together by swirling and 



