148 Osprey sculpture at Spey Bay WALK 24

Kingston and Spey Bay

Distance 7.5km/4.75 miles and then the Garmouth & Kingston Time 2 hours Golf Club to arrive in Garmouth. Here, Start/Finish Kingston GR NJ340655 you follow Spey Street and then Church Terrain Quiet roads, woodland paths Street to make the gradual climb Map OS Landranger 28 through this attractive little village. Public transport Regular Stagecoach Bluebird Service 34 from Elgin to Garmouth has strong links with Kingston shipbuilding, although it is perhaps best known as the place where, in 1650, The reaches the end King Charles II landed on his return from of its epic journey at Spey Bay, exile to sign the Solemn League and where it flows into the Firth. Covenant which confirmed the alliance The estuary is flanked by the village between the English Parliament and of Kingston on one side and a Scottish Covenanters in their disputes scattering of houses, along with the with the Royalists. excellent Scottish Dolphin Centre, at Spey Bay on the other. This walk uses Pass The Loanie (where the quiet roads and paths to link both in signing took place) and, just before the a wonderfully elemental spot for Garmouth Hotel, turn left onto Church viewing marine wildlife. Road. Walk past several houses and, once across a bridge, turn left down From the little car park by the some steps, signposted for Spey Bay. waterside at Kingston, make your way through the village, using a narrow These take you onto a cycle/walkway, path that runs on the left-hand side of where you turn right to follow this scenic Kingston Road. This passes reedbeds wooded track above the golf course.

Shipping News In 1784, two shipbuilders, William Osborne and Ralph Dodsworth, arrived from Kingston-upon-Hull, having struck a deal with the Duke of Gordon to buy all of the timber in his vast forest at Glenmore. The Spey was already well-used for floating timber from elsewhere for processing at Garmouth, but the two men had even bigger plans. They established shipyards at what was subsequently named Kingston-on-Spey that were capable of building boats of up to 500 tons – including clipper ships that serviced the tea trade from India in the early 1800s. But the boom didn’t last long: diminishing timber stocks and the rise to prominence of steel-hulled ships spelt the end of shipbuilding at Kingston-on-Spey.

149 The Spey

Journey’s End Spey Bay is the largest shingle beach system in – an ever-changing landscape created by the often violent coming together of river and sea. The Spey is unusual in that it actually picks up speed as it reaches the sea, dragging with it vast quantities of shingle. The habitat here ranges from bare shingle to reedbeds and saltmarsh, with a corresponding range of flora and fauna, including osprey, nesting terns at the river mouth and large numbers of wildfowl. Perhaps best of all are the bottlenose dolphins – one of just two such resident populations in British waters – that can often be seen hunting salmon just offshore. You can learn much more about these charismatic animals by visiting the Whale and Dolphin Conservation’s Scottish Dolphin Centre, housed in a former salmon fishing station at Spey Bay.

150