Memories of Carrbridge and Glencharnoch

by Lorna Shellabear

Thinking of the house and the village conjures up all sorts of memories, but one of them being of summer evening barbecues in the back garden with Una and Bill Leitch who lived next door (and still do), with their daughters Gillian and Alison.

When the cottage had been demolished (I just about remember the cottage and the wild cats that lived beneath it) there was a wood pile from which Stewart made a picnic table and benches. Part of the range that was in the cottage was used to make a barbecue and Colin had printed his initials in the cement.

After the cottage was demolished, the back garden of Glencharnoch, for a while, was over-run with weeds and it was obviously difficult to keep on top of it when the house was visited so infrequently. However, I remember one year Mum planted potatoes in the bottom half of the garden and everybody thought she was completely mad. I remember helping to harvest those lovely new potatoes and it certainly did the trick with the weeds, as Stewart & Fiona seeded the lawn which was then luscious every year from that point onwards.

The woods surrounding the cemetery were always a favourite place and if I were to be buried, then it would have to be in Carrbridge Cemetery – it really is the most fantastic site for a cemetery, surrounded by tall, fragrant pine trees…..and enormous red, biting ants which meant that I couldn’t stand still for very long and I spent my time hopping from one foot to another or stamping to get the little critters off me!

Living in a completely smoke-free big city like Manchester, simply the smell of the wood smoke in the village and house was enough for me. On the initial journey up from Manchester and on passing the ‘Carrbridge’ sign, we would always let out a big cheer, as before the new A9 was built, it used to take 8 hours of driving from Manchester and our journey generally had to be broken either in Ayr at Gaga’s or Glasgow at Fiona & Stewart’s. It was always therefore a relief to pass the sign, my travel sickness having been the same as Alasdair’s when he was young – however, the only thing that worked for me was sitting on the day’s issue of The Daily Telegraph!

Up until being the age of about 8, I used to ‘bag’ the back bedroom as mine every time we arrived at Glencharnoch, but strangely, from about the age of 8, that long dark corridor just became too spooky to venture anywhere near the back bedroom! It might of course have had something to do with the fact that someone (probably Duncan) just might have told me about the murderer buried in the back garden and somehow I just felt more secure being in the middle front bedroom from that point onwards!! Didn’t the floor in the back bedroom slope strangely?!

Remember also the hump in the lawn on the right of the house? I swear the murderer was buried there and I just wouldn’t accept Mum’s explanation that it was simply a raised water pipe – did she think I was born yesterday or something?

I also remember going to see ‘Bednobs and Broomsticks’ at Aviemore Cinema in the early 70’s and then coming back to the house and playing in the ‘box room’ – remember the brass bed frame that was in there? – uncannily similar to the film! No doubt ‘Juuulian’ and ‘Arrrlison’ would have been playing it with me! We had a fab time playing that for hours on end. Also with the dolls house that was in that room for years and years.

The toilet seat! Now whatever happened to it? Someone should have unscrewed it and used it in their own bathroom (having inspected for woodworm first of course). I had completely forgotten how comfortable and warm it was until I was reminded of it on the Alizarin website! It was a miracle that the cast iron bath never ended up in the kitchen though – it must have weighed a ton and there were so many strange holes in the floor……! The crashing cistern was something else too and if Duncan or I wished to visit the toilet in the evening when it was dark, in order to get to the bathroom, we had to walk out into the dark hall (remember how dark that hall was?!), try to fathom out which light switch on the wall was for the upstairs light bulb, run up the stairs two at a time (checking behind you all the way of course), lock the door behind you (I remember the Edwardian ‘vacant/occupied’ lock), do the business, flush the cistern and run like buggery back to the lounge because it sounded like the murderer was on your tail….…. AND having to flick the light switch off again on the way past!

I was lucky with my birthday falling on 4th August, that it always coincided with being at Glencharnoch, so my birthdays were generally spent either ice-skating at the Aviemore Centre (not Mum’s favourite place!), horse-riding in Nethybridge or at some Highland Games somewhere or other – Nairn or Moy being the favourites ones.

However one year, I do remember going up to Glencharnoch with Fiona, Stewart and Gordon to lock the house up for winter. We had to dig down about 3 feet to the front door and when inside, the house was unbelievably colder on the inside than the outside and there was frost on the windows….inside. There was also a terrible burst that time and water was coming through a light bulb in the kitchen……..and Duncan & Gordon took great joy in drawing pee-pictures in the snow!

Summer holidays spent at Glencharnoch were always relaxing and latterly I never missed not having a television to sit in front of hour after hour. The board games which were stored in the filing cabinet in the dining room always kept us entertained and if not, there were always the old photographs and postcards to look through. There was also a Ouija Board in there………. You took your chance with the weather as well and if you didn’t get rain, then it was a bonus! Otherwise, cagoules and wellies were the order of the day (I whinged like mad at the time though!). Sitting in front of the log fire was mesmerising too – but was that chimney ever swept??!!

It was a very sad day when the decision was made to sell Glencharnoch, although understandable. However, the sale coincided with John and I buying a run-down, 5-bedroom, Edwardian house in Urmston, Manchester, which basically needed completely gutting. Once the basics had been done, we had rooms to fill with furniture – we had virtually nothing other than a bed, dining room table/chairs and a sofa & chairs - and decided to buy some of the furniture from Glencharnoch. We both also wanted something solid to remember the house by, me having spent every summer there since I’d been born, and John, because he just loved the place and really wished we could have afforded to buy it outright at the time and had the money for materials with which to renovate it. The dresser from the kitchen at Glencharnoch is in our kitchen – remember the sound the stainless steel cutlery made when you pulled the drawer in and out? Of course all the furniture needed treating for woodworm and dry rot spores before it even came across the threshold – but I’m glad that we decided to buy it as it brings back lovely memories of Glencharnoch and fits so well with the period of our house as well.

Very fond memories are held of a special house which was part of our extended family for such a long time – that in itself being special, as I know of very few people who can boast having had the opportunity of being able to visit regularly what used to be their Great-Grandparents marital home.

©2005 Lorna Shellabear

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