CHAPTER LV 



THE BIG AND LITTLE GRUINARD 



Although it is no longer " a far cry to Loch Awe," it still takes a 

 good deal of travelling to reach these two out-of-the-way rivers 

 of the Ross-shire west coast, for after arriving at Garve railway 

 station there is a drive of thirty-five miles to the respective inns 

 of Aultbea and Dundonnell, the former, on the west, being ten 

 miles from the river bank, with the latter, a like distance on the 

 east. 



Both streams fall into Gruinard Bay, "The Big" a few 

 miles to the north of its smaller namesake. The Meikle or Muckle 

 Gruinard, draining fifty-eight square miles of hill country and 

 rising in Loch Nidd, has a course of six miles, receiving the Minch 

 tributary immediately before flowing into the upper end of Loch 

 na-Shellag, from whence it has a further run of six miles to the sea. 



Gruinard House, the property of Mr. A. H. M. Catton, is on 

 the right bank, close to the sea ; while farther up, and only a quarter 

 of a mile from the high road, comes the iron house that goes with 

 Mr. Mackenzie's property of Dundonnell, the two proprietors 

 fishing the river jointly. The high road crosses about a mile 

 above the mouth. There is also a wire bridge just where it leaves 

 the loch, while in low water it is fordable in several places. There 

 is a fairly good path along either bank, the south one being the 

 best. Although fish ascend above Loch na-Shellag, they are seldom 

 fished for, as the streams are shingly and shallow, and therefore 

 the angling is confined almost entirely to the six miles between the 

 loch and the sea, in which distance there are more than twenty fine 

 pools, the best of which are the Top Flats, Shepherds, Harvey's, 

 the Upper, Middle, and Lower Rockies, the Colonel's, Baring's 

 Flat, Craig Pot, and Garden, which is the nearest one to the sea. 



The angling, which is strictly preserved, was once indeed well 

 worth lookmg after, but of late years the smallness of the fixed 

 estuary, and the great numbers of bag-nets in Gruinard Bay, 

 have slowly but surely deteriorated the sport. In 1883 three good 

 anglers had but two salmon and five grilse from the 15th of June 

 to the 15th of July, which is the worst take ever recorded on this 

 stream. Only fifteen years prior to that, one rod took twenty-one 

 salmon and grilse from Craig Pool in a day, and up to 1858 a dozen 

 fish a day were common, one tenant getting as many as 500 salmon 

 and grilse to his own rod in one season. 



