As we drove down the road from Fochabers towards Spey Bay we tried to remember when last we had visited here. It was certainly when we were living in Buckie in the 1970s. It was a place we loved to visit for the vast beach of shingle and of course the river Spey as it flowed into the Moray Firth.
We would bring the children here when they were very young. I remember one glorious summer afternoon watching the salmon fishermen with their drag nets working in the river. This gave the name to the little community at the end of the road, beside the ice houses Tugnet.
Other memories we shared were of an ice cream stop on a Christian Aid sponsored walk from Fochabers to Buckie, thanks to Gordon McKay who brought the ice cream in his boat’s van from Buckie. Then there was the start of the walk which I made with the Buckie ministers in the early 1980s, starting at Spey Bay and ending up at Aberlour.
Spey Bay, however is now very much on the tourist route, thanks to the Scottish Dolphin Centre. How different it was when we drove up to the ice house and found that the car park full, people everywhere, and we had to park on the verge. What a disappointment it was, when I was expecting the quiet little place of my distant memories.
I have dug out a few old slides of these early days, and scanned them in. The colour is not great, and they are a bit messy and dusty, but they have revived my memories of the old days at Spey Bay.
Have to agree, haven’t been here for ages, what a mess, total chaos, dreadful looking campsite resembling an NCP carpark nowhere to park , few new kit houses to ruin things further, feel so sorry for the locals, turned round and drove a few miles down the coast ,got lucky and saw quite a few dolphins . Similar thing happened at Chananory Point, bollards everywhere fewer parking places, tarmac and neatly gravelled paths totally ruined the feel of the place guess it’s only a matter of time before they start charging for the privilege.