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| List of names as written | Various modes of spelling | Authorities for spelling | Situation | Description remarks |
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| RIVER DEE | [Continued from page 65] Continued from other side. other rises 160 feet from the summit of Braeriach, and descends south-eastward, chiefly down the deepest and most awful precipice in Britain, to a confluence with the former at the north-east side of Cairntoul. The springs of the two are less than four miles asunder, as the crow flies; but a tremendous gorge intervenes, sternly naked on one side, and largely occupied on the skirts and bottom of the other with fallen masses of granite rock. The scenery is terrible. One understands here more than any where else in the Highlands, more even than in Glencoe, the influence of wild Alpine landscape in darkening the imaginations of the Highlanders, so as to give to their traditions those aspects of gloom and superstition which have ever hung as severely upon them as if they had been the effusions of a rational faith. A graphic periodical writer, describing the approach to this gorge from the glen of the river below, says, — " Gradually what was something like a road, dies away; and you are now compelled to pick your way among stones, and through the long heather, occasionally meeting with one of the small tracks worn by the deer, and used by such scanty travellers as may pass through that savage wilderness. There is a peculiar effect of loneliness you may never perhaps have experienced before, on entering this wilderness. The hills are at first distant, and the glen wide and hollow; but a dead stillness reigns on everything, except on the clattering river, which still flows on in no unstately bulk. Wandering on, mile after mile, the glen gradually narrows, and gets more savage in its aspect; great black rocks, which look like the walls of some Antediluvian city of the giants begin to run themselves up on each other; they approach more & more to each other. It is time we should tell him exactly where he is. Yonder singular looking peak, with shaggy precipitous sides, towards the west is Cairntoul; proceeding from its side - as a wall seems to proceed from the angle of a turret - is a vast black mass of perpendicular rock; that is the ridge of Braeriach, said by an eminent calculator of altitudes, to have 2000 feet of sheer precipice; that 2000 feet of precipice is the object which it now almost aches your eyes to look upon - a flat black mass, streaked with snow and sometimes intruded on by a cloud, which divides the upper regions from the lower. It is probably that now, in mid-day, a hot sun gilds its black front, and mocks its streaks of snow, while a dead unearthly silence pervades the mass. It is not so at all times; for here is the workshop of stones - here the elements, when they prepare themselves to come down with destruction on the fruitful valleys below, exercise their strength and do no harm; the scene is different from the stillness of the present; but with your leave, reader, it is a change we do not wish to witness. Returning to the description of our glen: right ahead, and almost protruding into it, is the well known Cairngorm; and towards the east, stretched the loftier Benmacdhu, now admitted to be the highest hill in Britain. The head-stream from Benmacdhu immediately on issuing from its hidden course beneath the granite debris, discends a series of five terraces, each looking like a ledge of masonry, and holding a deep limpid pool in its centre. These are called the wells of the Dee. The stream there is popularly called the Dee, but is not joined till 3 miles down by the head-stream from Braeriach, which is popularly called Garachy or Garrochory. Another stream called Guisachan, descending South-eastward from Bennavrochan, falls in 2½ miles farther on, at the lower base of Cairntoul, and a fourth called the Geauly or Gieuly descending eastward from Cairneilar, falls in four miles still farther on at Dubrach. The main river now takes a decided permanent direction toward the east; and all the way from "the Wells" hither, and also a short distance farther, it flows over a broken rocky bed, in alternate sweeps, rapids, and cascades till at length, at a place 6 miles above Castleton of Braemar, it forms a remarkable series of four small falls called the Linn of Dee. " The Linn of Dee," says the periodical writer quoted, "You will hardly find to be what you probably expected — a lofty waterfall. The fall is indeed very insignificant, and it is over a sloping bank from which there is no leap; but in no waterfall, not even in the princely Foyers, do we behold such a terrible specimen of the imprisoned power of the watery element. Here it has got itself entangled in a complete nest of impenetrable granite rocks, which alternately confine and enlarge the noble stream, sometimes allowing its waters to sweep indignantly round and round some large black basins, then again compelling them to exhaust their rage in cleaving their way betwixt two ledges, so near each other, that it is very easy - and a very common practice with those who have sound clear heads - to step across it. About 1½ miles below the linn, at the farm of Dallavorar, some signs of cultivation begin to appear on the banks of the Dee; but it soon after enters Mar Forest, through which it flows to Castleton of Braemar, receiving in its course the Lui and the Quoich from the north, and the Inverey and the Clunie from the south, and passing Mar Lodge on its northern bank. From Castleton it pursues its course through the Mar and Invercauld forests, and past Balmoral and Abergeldie, to the bridge of Ballater, above which it is joined by the Gairden, from the north, and the Muick, from the south. *** The Dee's total length of run is about 96 miles, and its tributaries drain nearly 1000 square miles of country." Fullarton's Gazetteer of Scotland |
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CorrieBuidhe- Moderator, hastingleigh, Iain496
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