by Alasdair Gordon

My grand-parents Alex and Isabella Maclean were married on14th December 1906 in the U.F.Church in Dulnan Bridge and their home for all of their marriage was Glencharnoch in the village of Carrbridge, Inverness-shire. The property was built in 1899 on a site where the village inn had stood.

Alex and Isabella Maclean had three children. My mother Jeanie was born on 18th November 1907 and my uncle Ian was born on 29th January 1916. There was also their son Alastair born on 31st July 1911 but sadly Alastair died in infancy. I have known Carrbridge since my youngest days. My father, a Minister of Religion, was called to the U.F.Church in the village as his first charge in May 1926 and his mother kept manse for him. In 1929 he accepted a call to St Paul's Church in Aberdeen. During his ministry in Carrbridge, my father had met Jeanie,the daughter of Alex and Isabella Maclean, and their marriage took place in Carrbridge on 26th June 1930.

I was their first child, born in Aberdeen on 13th July 1931. Carrbridge was the regular summer destination for Gibbie and Jean Gordon and their family, starting with me and my brother Colin, born on 25th February 1934. My father accepted a call to Sandgate Church in Ayr in March 1936 and in Ayr my sisters were born, Catriona on 5th March 1939 and Fiona on 12th June 1945. Fiona was only a few weeks old when our father died on 21st July 1945.

In the years from 1932 to 1944, Carrbridge was where the Gordon family spent two months every summer. In those days the school holidays in the summer were two months long. For one month my father would enjoy a complete rest and for the other, he relieved the Carrbridge Minister from pulpit and urgent pastoral duties. My grand-father Alex Maclean died on 18th February 1939 at the age of 64, struck down by a coronary thrombosis outside his carpenter's workshop in the Station Road in the village. In the summers before my grand-father's death, he and my grand-mother along with my uncle Ian moved out of Glencharnoch into a cottage at the back.

The Drysdale family took a regular summer let of Glencharnoch and I have a vague memory of Mr Drysdale, a blimpish and moustached gentleman. At that time, my grand-parents had the let of a piece of ground across the road from Glencharnoch which we called the small holding. It was a fenced garden with grass. a summer house ( revolving I think) and surrounding trees and bushes. This ground is where the Tuck Shop now stands.

Our life in the cottage at Glencharnoch in the summer months up to my grand-father's death is brought to mind by the photograph album. It was a wooden cottage with corrugated iron roof and contained a living-room, two bedrooms, a kitchen cum wash-house and a water closet. A separate wooden outhouse contained a bedroom, a stick shed and a hen-house. My father and I slept in that bedroom. My mother and Colin slept in one of the bedrooms in the cottage and my grand-parents and Ian squeezed into the other cottage bedroom. There was no bath in the cottage so any bathing during the summer months had to be taken in the cold waters of the River Dulnan!Until the start of the war in 1939, our journeys from Ayr to Carrbridge were by car, a Morris 8 ( registration number CS 7945). It was an uncomfortable experience for me as I suffered from travel sickness. All known remedies were tried--sucking barley sugar, cotton wool in the ears, sitting in the middle of the car etc.--but we still had to stop the car many times to give me a breath of air or other relief. I recall the journey north taking from 9am to 4pm, virtually a day's travel. You can do it now in about half that time.

During the war we still managed our summer holidays in Carrbridge but of course without a car. In those days we took the train from Ayr to St Enoch's, Glasgow, our gear including bicycles for my father and mother ( one having a baby basket for Catriona) and for Colin and me. And we pedalled our way from St Enoch's up Buchanan Street to Buchanan Street Station! The Glasgow streets were quieter then. I was in my eighth year when my grand-father died.

He had been a highly respected member of the village community. His trade was joinery contracting which included coffin making. He was also the leader of the voluntary village fire brigade. The trumpet he used as a fire alarm was still in Glencharnoch until the house was sold. There used to be a flagpole in the front garden and a flag would be run up to tell the village that the brigade were out at a fire. Alex Maclean served for many years, including my father's ministry in Carrbridge, as the Session Clerk and leader of the Sunday School at the U.F.Church. My grand-mother remained at Glencharnoch with Ian until 1953.

From my father's death in 1945 we had travelled to Carrbridge by coach for our summer holidays. The coach stopped in the Square, Dunkeld for a welcome lunch break. When we at last reached Carrbridge, there were my grand-mother and Ian ready and waiting for us at the lounge window, Mam sitting on her favourite nursing chair and Ian sitting opposite on his favourite stool. In the kitchen, the range was gleaming black and there was a meal ready to be served. At that time there was a bedroom entering off the kitchen and this was used by my grand-mother and Ian. This room along with a back stair and an upper floor lumber room fell victim to wet or dry rot and had to be pulled down in the mid-1950s.

In 1953, my grand-mother, then 80, was in failing health. She was finding it more and more difficult to look after Ian who had Down's Syndrome. My grand-mother had to leave Carrbridge to live with us in Ayr. Ian was admitted to Craig Dunain Hospital, Inverness. I can recall how much the separation of Ian from his mother and the rest of us affected everyone but it was unavoidable.

Due to her financial situation, my mother had to take a full-time teaching post. My sisters were still at school and Colin and I were at University. Looking after my grand-mother from Mondays to Fridays took a lot of organising and would not have been possible without the help of neighbours and friends. As for Ian, there was just no alternative to institutional care. He was dearly loved by all of us. He revelled in company and he was a wizard on the black notes of the piano.

Ian died at Craig Dunain on 6th June 1961, aged 45. My grand-mother predeceased him, dying on 7th November 1956, aged 83, in our home at 10 Park Circus, Ayr. She was a kind, gentle and dignified lady who could never quite understand the wonder of television.

©2004 Alasdair Gordon

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