CHAPTER XVIII. 



RIVER HELMSDALE. 



ANGLING SEASON : January llth to September 30th. 

 NETTING SEASON : February llth to August 26th. 



No District Fishery Board. Whole river belongs to the Duke of Sutherland, and is let 

 to tenants of six lodges Salzcraggie (including Torrish), Kildonan, Suisgill, Borrobol, 

 Badanloch, and Auchintoul. 

 Factor to His Grace the Duke of Sutherland, Donald M'Lean, Esq., Sutherland 



Estate Office, Golspie. 

 There is now no netting in the district. 



FOR ideal conditions of salmon angling with the fly there is no river 

 in Scotland which surpasses the Helmsdale, and very few which may 

 be compared with it. The river has a length of only about 20 miles 

 through Kildonan Strath, and falls into the sea on the east coast of 

 Sutherland, not far from the Caithness boundary. It is a river of 

 beautiful running pools and gravel beaches, of low, open banks and 

 laughing shallows ; again, of rock-broken pools skirted with birch 

 and alder ; yet again, of silent channels and sandy shores. 



Half-way to the sea it pierces a rocky barrier, and forms the 

 Kildonan Falls, which determine the limits of the spring fishing. 

 Those falls are no obstacle to fish in summer, but when the water is 

 cold, salmon will not ascend them. They act, therefore, precisely as 

 do the falls of the Orchy, the falls of Mucomer, or the falls of the 

 Inverness-shire Garry. There are six beats below the Kildonan 

 falls and six beats above. Spring fishing is confined to the beats 

 below, summer fishing is carried on over the whole river. 



The altitude from which the Helmsdale rises is not very great. 

 In this it resembles the Thurso and differs from the Brora, the 

 early rivers on either side of it. The Helmsdale is generally 

 described as rising from a series of small lochs about 390 feet above 

 sea-level. It really rises a considerable distance beyond Lochs-nan- 

 Cuinne, Chlair, and Badanloch. Two head streams flow into the 

 north and south ends respectively of Loch-nan- Cuinne. The Rims- 



p 



