Carrbridge

The Carrbridge Hotel stables, now the Old Bridge Garage. An uninterrupted history servicing transportation. In 1808, a ‘Plan of the Intended Village at the Bridge of Carr’ was drawn out. At this time, the inhabitants of Duthil Parish lived at nearby Dalnahaitnach, Foregin and Slochd. The Old Bridge of Carr had been built in 1717 as a footbridge. In 1791, a new toll bridge built for wheeled transport bore first the Kinveachy to Dulsie Bridge military road and, from 1803, the Perth to Inverness road. This T-junction at the new bridge was considered a “settlement site in waiting”. The first building near the bridge was an inn. The first innkeeper was George Ellis Jr., the son of a Huntly weaver who had relocated to oversee work at the Grantown-on-Spey Linen Company’s factory. The 1808 village plan outlined 70 plots. This included 1.5-acre croft plots north of the bridge along the new main road (today Inverness Road). These plots were let quickly, but by 1860 only about a dozen plots had been developed south of the bridge. Carrbridge did not progress from a hamlet to a village until 1898, when the Highland railway line opened its Aviemore to Inverness section. An old holiday guide refers to Carrbridge as “a quiet holiday village on the fringes of nowhere in particular”. Yet 150 years after the 1808 plan was drawn up, Carrbridge would be booming as the first ski-centre in Scotland. During the first World War (1914-18), 400 German prisoners of war were encamped at nearby Inverlaidnan and employed felling timber. During the 1939-45 World War, a company of the Canadian Forestry Corps was stationed in Duthil. They were again employed in timber felling and known locally as ‘Newfies’. They lived in the village hall before building Camp No.1 – Newfundland-style log huts built of unfinished trunks of young trees, with gaps stopped up with moss. Many married local girls, who accompanied their husbands to Canada after the war. Around ten ‘Newfies’ settled in the parish. They displayed their physique and bravado by jumping off the Old Coffin Bridge into the deep pool – a dangerous act still practised to this day by local youngsters. In May 1940, the British Government appealed for civilian volunteers to form a home guard “to assist in the defence of the British Isles if and when the German forces attempted an invasion”. Large numbers of men from the Forestry Units volunteered. By 1942, the less well-defended areas of the north-east of Scotland were considered to be vulnerable to invasion. Hence, the military authorities saw a need for a mobile force, which, in the event of an invasion, could be assembled and moved at short notice. Another appeal for volunteers to foresters followed and, within a fortnight, the 3rd Inverness (Newfoundland) Battalion Home Guard had a complement of over 700 men. It was the only Home Guard Unit composed entirely of men from overseas who were serving in Britain on specialised war work. All training and exercises were carried out after working hours, at weekends and during leave. An assault course and rifle range were constructed at an abandoned logging site at Carrbridge. This training ground was used extensively by other Home Guard and regular army units. The British Home Guard was officially stood down on 31st December 1944, and the Newfoundland Battalion was represented at the National Home Guard stand-down parade in London that year. All members of the Forestry Unit who volunteered and served in the British Home Guard were awarded the Defence Medal. Prior to today’s Carrbridge Primary School opening in 1990, the school for the village was Duthil School – 1.5 miles east of the village on the Grantown road. Duthil School was built in 1877. Another school, dating from the late 18th century and the first in the district, was at Balnastraid near Duthil Church. There was also a girls’ school at The Glebe before it became church property. To the west of the parish, a school at Battan served the children from