Episode 10 Landward

Today's Landward is looking at one of Scotland's most famous

and challenging rivers - the mighty Spey.

Renowned for its salmon fishing, whisky industry and wildlife,

the Spey is vital to the local economy.

We'll be exploring its past, its future,

and asking if it can survive a major threat from the present.

We'll also be finding out about how the waters of the Spey have shaped

the environment and the lives of the people who live along its banks.

The river begins its 100-mile journey at Loch Spey,

ten miles south of Fort Augustus.

From here it winds its way to Spey Bay,

where it empties into the Moray Firth.

Flowing from the Monadhliath Mountains to the fertile

flood plains of the river delta, the Spey is known by anglers

around the world for the quality of its trout and salmon fishing.

It's famous for whisky too.

Nearly half of all Scotch whisky is produced on its banks,

and is worth millions of pounds to the local economy.

The river is also home to a wide range of wildlife, which makes it

a Special Area of Conservation.

And we'll be exploring some of this rich wildlife and history

later in the programme, as Euan goes in search of

one of the river's most iconic species.

We are in the right area, so I'm confident we should find some soo...

Ah, here we go.

Sarah finds out about the Spey's most devastating flood.

The height of the water would have been as high as the bridge?

Towards the top of that arch there.

And I will be experiencing first-hand why the Spey is

one of the most popular rivers in Scotland for canoeists.

Whoo!

But, first, Euan is near the head of the Spey to find out what impact

the amount of water diverted from the river

for industry and energy could have downstream.

From its beginnings high in the mountains,

the Spey and its many tributaries create a catchment which amounts to

a massive 36,500 kilometres of waterways.

The Spey may be famous the world over for its salmon fishing

but it's also a major resource for hydroelectric power generation,

and dams like this one on the Spey near Laggan

are responsible for massive amounts of renewable energy.

At the moment there are two main hydro schemes, both diverting water

out of the catchment area.

The dam here at Laggan diverts water to power an aluminium plant

at Fort William, and Scottish and Southern Energy takes

the water from the Spey tributaries the Tromie and the Truim

for its hydro scheme in Loch Tummel. That water ends up in the Tay.

This is renewable energy generation on a massive scale.

Great stuff, but, with up to half the water being

extracted from this part of the Spey, the effects are obvious.

Without extraction I'd be up to my waist in water because,

quite simply, what you do at the upper part of the river

has an impact further down.

Research commissioned by the Spey Fishery Board suggests

taking out so much water from the Spey catchment is having

an adverse effect on the ecology of the river.

I'm meeting up with the director, Roger Knight,

and his dog Rannoch on the banks of the River Truim to find out more.

What we have here is a diversion by Scottish and Southern Energy

taking water from the Spey catchment

and over into the Tay catchment in order to generate hydroelectricity.

-So this is water that would be going down the Spey.

-Absolutely.

Yes, it is.

To help compensate for that diversion,

-they provide a small compensation flow here.

-It's not much, is it?

-No.

-That doesn't look like it's going to fill up a whole Spey river.

It's not much in comparison to the volumes of water being taken away.

-And there's other areas, it's not just this one.

-It's not.

Currently almost 20% of the average annual flow of the River Spey

is abstracted or diverted out of the catchment.

And, if we look at the upper one third of the Spey catchment,

up to almost half of the flows in that area are diverted,

transferred out of the catchment.

'And there's probably more to come.

'Increased industry, house building and the re-watering

'of the River Garry will all mean removal of water from the Spey.'

What's the potential problem with this?

Because it's a bit of a cliche but this is the lifeblood of the Spey.

This is tens of thousands of people, there are communities,

-there are people that depend on this river for their jobs.

-Yes, it is.

Apart from the distilling industry,

we have a significant salmon-fishing industry here

that generates some £15 million per year for the local economy.

That's money that is going to hotels, bed and breakfasts,

shops, local businesses.

Instead of looking at these licensed abstractions

on an individual case-by-case basis,

we've been encouraging the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

to look holistically at the cumulative impact that

all of these abstractions are having on the Spey catchment as a whole.

Could you not be accused of scaremongering? You're just trying to protect it for the toffs.

No, I don't think we are, because the river can only sustain

a certain amount of abstraction,

beyond which you start to have an adverse impact on the ecology

and on the environment, and I think we've now reached that point.

We asked the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

if they think there's a problem. They told us...

"Any additional requirement to abstract water from the River Spey

"would need to go through a formal licensing process,

"as part of which SEPA would carry out a full environmental assessment."

This is a massive story.

I fully accept the needs for renewable power generation

in this country but earlier this year I was asked

to open the salmon fishing on the Spey

and I can see the potential impact on the livelihoods

of the tens of thousands of people that depend on this river.

The Spey is the lifeblood of communities

that stretch 157 kilometres from the mountains to the sea.

Like many stories we cover on Landward, this is a finite resource,

and you can only take for so long before it will have an impact.

Whether we've reached that stage yet is up to the planning authorities.

While Euan has been learning what effect a lack of water could have,

Sarah has been finding out what happened when there was too much.

On the 3rd of August 1829, the north-east of Scotland

witnessed one of the most catastrophic floods ever recorded.

For two whole days a mighty storm raged.

At least eight people lost their lives

and nearly 300 families were left destitute.

The flood went down in history as the Muckle Spate,

the likes of which had never been seen before.

As the water thundered downstream it swept away homes, businesses,

livestock and even many of the sturdy granite bridges

that crossed the river.

Today one of the most visible reminders of the flood

is here at Carrbridge -

the iconic ruined bridge over the Dulnain, a tributary of the Spey.

On August 2nd there was a really big storm brewing in the north Atlantic...

'I'm here to meet Professor Alan Werrity from the University of Dundee,

'a geographer who has studied this historic event.'

What happened here? What happened to this bridge?

This is a bridge that goes back to 1717,

so it had been around for nearly a hundred years or so.

As you can see from what remains of it, it just about survived.

The wings of the bridge, according to a contemporary account,

-were taken out.

-And so most of it was swept away?

Most of it was swept down the River Dulnain.

So, just to give us an impression,

the height of the water would have been as high as the bridge?

I imagine it would have been towards the top of that arch there.

-Towards the top of the arch?

-Yes.

-That's incredible.

I mean, people locally must have never seen the likes before.

They thought this was an act of God and some of them

who were good Presbyterians thought it was because of their sinfulness.

Such was the impact of the floods,

they were immortalised in the art and poetry of the era.

This poem, The Muckle Spate, was written by David Grant in 1851.

An' then for fouran'twenty hoors There followed a doonfa'

The like o' which, sin' Noah's flood

The warl' never saw.

How badly were people affected by this?

The contemporary accounts tell us

that as many as 300 families were rendered destitute,

particularly in the catchment covered by the River Findhorn.

There were eight people who died.

Many bridges were taken out.

Farms down on the valley floor would have been swept away.

The livestock would have drowned, the fields flattened.

The level of destitution for the people

living in this area would have been really severe.

And we estimate that it's perhaps a flood that would occur

on average once every 500 years.

It really was the big one, the Muckle Spate.

The Spey is the fastest-flowing river in Scotland,

but the scale of the flood can best be seen here

at Randolph's Leap, where the rivers Findhorn and Divvy meet.

This was the extreme centre of the storm.

We're beside the Findhorn and the Divvy rivers.

How high would the water have been during the Muckle Spate here?

We know that here the river came up to about 50ft above normal.

And just over there's a flood stone which marks the precise level.

Let's go and have a look.

How significant is this stone?

This stone is hugely helpful to us as scientists

because knowing the height the river came to...

-There's some writing on it. What does it say?

-It says here,

"Findhorn and Divvy joined here in flood. August 3rd and 4th, 1829."

And this is important

because from this I've been able to calculate the peak of the flood

and the flow associated with it

and that value has helped design the flood defences for Forres.

Professor Werrity's research into the 1829 flood

has contributed to Moray Council's recent decision to invest in

a massive flood alleviation scheme.

Over a thousand homes and businesses in Forres

will be protected from any future flood on this scale.

Are we still at risk of flooding increasing?

Flood risk is increasing and will increase given climate change.

The challenge is how to live with flooding.

We can defend many places like we are defending Forres at the moment,

but that's not available for everyone.

We have to have other measures

and one of the most important is flood warning.

Not available of course in 1829, we can now at least advise people

two or three or more hours before a flood that it's going to happen

and hopefully they can then begin to take sensible precautionary measures.

Is it likely to ever happen again?

Because it happened once, it can happen again.

The real challenge is working out when.

I think the likelihood of it happening again

is going to be higher now than it was in 1829.

A spate on the Spey is not something I want to experience,

especially as I'm about to take to the river in a canoe.

The River Spey is one of the classic descents for canoeists.

The sheer beauty of the scenery makes it an absolute pleasure

to meander gently down the stream.

I'm also told that there are some rapids to contend with.

-How you doing?

-I'm good, thanks. How are you?

-Excellent.

-Is this my taxi?

-This is your taxi.

-Fantastic.

-And no fare.

I'm keen to find out more about the river and its wildlife

and David Craig has kindly offered to be my guide.

He's a passionate authority on canoeing on the river. He should be.

As well as being the Scottish Canoe Association's Spey advisor,

he's descended the river 140 times.

She's different every time. Every day she's different.

The Spey is definitely a lady.

It's probably one of the rivers that's most paddled,

it's an ideal touring river.

What sort of things should I expect to see on the trip?

Bird life on the Spey is absolutely fantastic.

For example, goldeneye, which are quite rare in Scotland,

they're quite prolific on the Spey.

In fact, we've just had a goldeneye flying past us as we speak.

-They make that curious, throaty kind of noise.

-Yeah.

And then herons. Fish all the way down the river.

Even the fishermen don't mind herons too much

because they tend to catch things like eels and frogs.

You've got the other very expert fisher, you've got the osprey.

Osprey in Loch Insh, and then all the way down the Spey we now see osprey,

because they're also on the increase.

I've done a wee bit of paddling before,

do you have to be experienced to come out on the Spey, would you say?

Eh... You need to be a proficient paddler.

A lot of people who come out on my trips are complete beginners.

The Spey starts off fairly gently, we've got bits like we're on just now

where it's nice and calm.

And this gives you lots of time to practise strokes.

The Spey has some pretty successful and important fishing beats.

How do you make sure you're not upsetting fishermen,

or do you make sure you're not upsetting fishermen?

I think it's based on respect.

And I think if river users respect each other then

things are actually fine, we can have a harmony.

As far as the fishermen are concerned,

there's a protocol to follow. So we when we approach a fisherman,

we try and attract their attention.

The fishermen request that we whistle and then they should acknowledge

our presence and request us to pass on whichever side they prefer.

Canoeing on the Spey has something for everyone.

Ambling is great, but in Dave's safe hands,

I'm ready to ramp it up a bit and try some white water.

But the first boiling water Dave has in mind is for a cup of tea.

He needs to give me some pointers before we hit the rapids.

We're going to head onto these rapids now.

What should I be thinking about before taking them on?

Just remember in the Spey there are no big rapids,

this is a grade two rapid.

Slightly more technical, it's got a few more rocks to avoid.

You're having to steer the boat down.

When you get to grade three,

then you need a good bit of technical expertise.

Grade five is something you might class as a danger to life.

-Right.

-The main thing we have to avoid is broadsiding on a rock.

Because if we broadside, one side of the boat rises up

and then the top side fills.

And then up comes what I call the Black Hand of the Spey,

and that can pull you over.

If anything, we back paddle.

And if you do hit anything,

we hit it gently and we hit it with the front of the boat.

There is a chance we could swim.

There's always a chance you could swim.

Yes, I always say to my clients, capsizing is a possibility.

So all I have to do is listen to what you're saying,

do exactly what you say and we should stay nice and dry?

Absolutely.

-Hello!

-Hi.

Once we've passed this big rock here we're going to start swinging right.

Whoa, that's bumpy.

HE CHEERS

Whoa!

There's some waves there. Look at that!

I got wet there.

Taking in the river from its bank,

even flying over to get a sense of its scale is nothing compared to

experiencing it from the water itself.

It's beautiful, at times exhilarating, mostly tranquil

and alive with wildlife.

That was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

And we've stopped.

While I take a breather, Euan is finding out about

the future for one of the Spey's most precious inhabitants.

Freshwater pearls have long been a favourite of royalty.

They can be found in the crown of the Honours of Scotland,

Scotland's crown jewels.

But in recent years the mussels that produce the pearls

have become an endangered species worldwide.

Today Scotland is the last remaining stronghold of

the freshwater pearl mussel.

And up to half of the global population that remains

can be found in Scottish rivers.

And the Spey is supposed to be the jewel in the crown.

The pearl mussel population in the Spey was last surveyed

over a decade ago, so Scottish Natural Heritage have commissioned

new research to find out how these populations are faring.

I'm joining ecologist Peter Cosgrove,

who's conducting the survey.

What are you doing?

Well, I'm looking for freshwater pearl mussels.

-But I'm not finding very many.

-What's the problem?

Well, this area used to be absolutely full of pearl mussels.

Ten years ago there would be maybe two or three thousand

along this little section here. And I've found four so far today.

The problem has been a major expansion of a non-native weed

called ranunculus, which was accidentally introduced into the Spey.

And it's now choking all the mussels beds.

It likes the same habitat that the mussels are in.

It's just carpeted with this and then the roots trap sand, silt and mud

and then that swamps and sits on top of the mussels and the mussels die.

The freshwater pearl mussel is now a protected species and while

the threat from illegal pearl fishing has significantly reduced,

Peter Cosgrove has been working to help increase the mussel population.

I'm going to take you to a site where we've been doing some

conservation work on them.

-OK. Can't see any there.

-No.

At a secret location on a tributary of the Spey,

Peter reintroduced the mussel ten years ago.

It's one of only three introduction sites in Scotland.

With the population of the main river obviously in decline,

this habitat is vital for the future of the species,

but they are difficult to spot.

This is good habitat cos it's nice and stable.

Is that one there?

No, that's stone.

This could be a long process.

We're in the right area, so I'm confident we should find some soon...

Ah, here we go. Excellent.

I don't know if you can see, there's three mussels,

but unfortunately there's two dead shells as well.

-Is that another one up there?

-Let me have a look.

Yes, there is.

Is that a bad sign?

Well, it's not great.

It is disappointing to find three dead in this area.

But there are live mussels here, so there's nothing with the water.

Pearl mussels can live for up to 100 years

and their population in the tributary is increasing.

This is a live freshwater pearl mussel. Quite a heavy beast.

-That feels like lead.

-Yeah, it does.

It's very dense compared to one that you get in the sea.

-This way?

-Just put it back down on the riverbed where it came from.

And they all settle themselves back in within three or four hours.

These were put in ten years ago.

The population's doing OK.

There's one sitting nicely up there, filtering away.

So there's nothing catastrophic happened to the population.

Despite the dead shells,

the majority of this reintroduced population is in good shape,

but they still need to reproduce

and mussels don't make it easy for themselves.

The larvae of the pearl mussel need to attach themselves to

the gills of salmon or trout,

where they stay for several months at a time,

before dropping off upstream and settling on the river bed.

You would have thought it was a strategy guaranteed

-to send them to extinction.

-Absolutely.

It's a bit of a bad evolutionary angle to require a species itself

that's endangered as part of your life cycle.

It's like being a parasite on a tiger, that's a bad evolutionary move

if you require another threatened species then.

This is why the odds are stacked against pearl mussels

and why having a healthy river

and healthy fish stocks is critically important to this species.

-So it looks like it can be done.

-Absolutely. It can be done.

We've done it in other places

and young mussels are coming back through.

And we've been trying to do that because a lot of nature conservation

is talking about depressing stories.

And there is a depressing story about the decline of this species,

but we can actually do relatively cost effective small conservation

work that makes big differences.

So the reintroduction programme has been about doing that,

about making a difference.

It is difficult to restore lost populations

of these complex creatures,

but for the freshwater mussel on the Spey,

the future's just that little bit brighter.

Over the centuries, for the people who live along its banks,

the Spey has been more than just a river.

It's been a centre for industry and a channel for communication.

I've come to the mouth of the Spey to find out about

one of its most ancient forms of transport.

The village of Kingston on the mouth of the River Spey was once

a thriving centre for ship building.

Timber from the forests around Aviemore

and Aberlour were rafted down the river to create wooden-hulled ships

that were sent all over the world.

In its heyday Kingston had seven shipyards,

one of them beside that white house,

and they would launch their ships from there down into the river.

Today, very little remains of that once thriving industry,

except one tiny little boat found in a loft nearby over a century ago.

Elgin Museum house the only surviving original Spey coracle

or currach.

I'm here to see Jane Tryville to find out more.

-What are we actually looking at here?

-We're looking at a currach,

but it's a replica of an original currach,

in fact the last surviving Spey currach

that we have here in the Elgin Museum.

The circular currach is made usually of woven willow

with an animal skin stretched over the wooden frame.

What were they actually used for on the Spey?

They were used for ferrying, for carrying people on the river,

for fishing.

Later on in the 18th century they were used with the timber trade.

It's quite extraordinary that these currachs were used on

the Spey for hundreds of years,

but to me they look incredibly difficult to control.

Just how difficult I'm about to find out by having a go in one.

Jane Wilkinson teaches people how to make currachs

and she's brought along one of her modern-day creations to show me.

Jane, the first thing I notice about this

is that it's quite different from the one in the museum.

Yeah, it's more of an oval shape, this one.

The ones in the museum are a circular shape

which is the Spey currach, it's like a flat saucer.

This one is a basket with a canvas stretched over it

and stitched on and coated in bitumen paint.

-How stable is it?

-Moderately stable.

That means not very.

It's a little bit different from a canoe or a kayak.

What you have to do is get your weight very much in the centre

and you have to brace your feet at the corner points here.

And then you're doing a figure of eight or a sculling motion

with the paddle and that just draws you along. It was very steady.

They were used for fishing in rivers in Wales and in Scotland.

And on the Spey the circular currach was used for

floating logs down to Spey Bay

and if the logs got jammed then the person who was in control of

the currach would stand up and they would unblock the log jam.

-They would stand up?

-They were experts at this.

You will be an expert in precisely ten minutes.

Ten minutes seems a bit optimistic,

but with the help of Jane's daughter Derry to steady the ship,

-I'm going to give it a go.

-That's it.

Now find the centre point.

-I presume we go down on our knees here.

-Yeah.

Oh, my goodness me.

Easy now. Thank you. And this is not a traditional paddle?

No, this is a canoe paddle. But it works just fine.

We've got a hold of the rope. Away you go. A nice sculling motion.

Not too wide with the figure of eight. That's great.

And away you go.

He's off down the Spey.

I've managed to turn because it's windy.

It's a very strange experience.

It's like kneeling in a peanut shell,

not the most comfortable experience I've ever had.

It's actually OK.

Then it starts being windy and suddenly it's not OK.

It's hard to believe that people used to steer timber logs down

the river in a wee boat like this, but apparently they did.

Well, just before I get pretty soggy,

I've just got time to tell you

what's coming up on next week's programme.

We look at the health of seal populations around the coast.

-Pretty impressive, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's the biggest site on the east coast of Scotland for grey seals.

And we're at the stunning Dawyck Botanic Garden

where they are reinstating a hydro scheme

first used in Victorian times.

So please join us for that and much,

much more at the same time next week,

Friday night, 7:30 on BBC Two Scotland.

Now I've just got to get back to the bank.

I may be some time.