Kingussie

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kingussie
Scottish Gaelic Ceann a 'Ghiùthsaich
Kingussie and surrounding countryside
Kingussie and surrounding countryside
Coordinates 57 ° 5 ′  N , 4 ° 3 ′  W Coordinates: 57 ° 5 ′  N , 4 ° 3 ′  W
Kingussie (Scotland)
Kingussie
Kingussie
Residents 1476 2011 census
administration
Post town KINGUSSIE
ZIP code section PH21
prefix 01540
Part of the country Scotland
Council area Highland
Civil Parish Kingussie and Insh
British Parliament Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
Scottish Parliament Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber

Kingussie (pronunciation kɪŋˈjuːsi ), Gaelic Ceann a 'Ghiùthsaich (pronunciation ˈkʲʰaun̴̪ ə ˈʝuːs̪ɪç ) is a small town in the Scottish Highlands .

Geographical location

Kingussie is located on the upper reaches of the Spey in the Cairngorms National Park. The city belongs to the Highland Council district ( ward ) of Badenoch and Strathspey and is the capital of the district ( district ) Badenoch. Neighboring towns are Newtonmore five kilometers southwest above and Kincraig ten kilometers northeast below the Spey. The tourist center Aviemore is just under 20 kilometers northeast.

history

Kingussie is a corruption of the Gaelic name Ceann a 'Ghiùthsaich ; this means head of the pine forest .

Originally the place was about a kilometer further south, near the ruins of the Ruthven Barracks . It was relocated to avoid the floods in the marshes of the Spey.

Ruthven Barracks

In the early 12th century, the Comyn family built a wooden castle on the hill where the ruins now stand. In 1371 Alexander Stewart, Wolf of Badenoch, acquired this property. The Earl of Huntly rebuilt the castle from stone in the late 15th century. Jacobite troops under Bonnie Dundee destroyed it in 1689. Instead of the ruins, the military built a fortified garrison under the royal house of Hanover between 1719 and 1721 , the Ruthven Barracks , in order to keep the notoriously troubled highlands under control - “to preserve the peace and quiet of the country ". Ruthven was one of four such garrisons established after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, next to Kilcumein near Fort Augustus , Bernera on the Sund across from the Isle of Skye and Inversnaid on Loch Arklet in the Trossachs . Ruthven dominated the strategic position at the meeting of the three military roads to Inverness , Perth and Fort Augustus.

During the second Jacobite revolt in 1745, the garrison was initially able to assert itself with a 13-man garrison against a siege by a 200-man Jacobite troop. In 1746, however, it was subject to the main Jacobite power and was destroyed. After the Battle of Culloden , the defeated Jacobite troops found their final refuge here. Their leader Charles Edward Stuart said goodbye with the words: "Let every man seek his own safety in the best way he can." Then the insurgents burned the buildings down.

Today Kingussie is a tourist center in the popular holiday region of the Highlands.

traffic

Kingussie is on the Scottish main road A9 , where the A86 joins. The old course of the street forms the main street of the village. A bypass road has been through traffic since 1979.

The place is on the railway line from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Inverness. ScotRail trains operate many daily trips to these three centers. The Caledonian Sleeper night train and an express train from London North Eastern Railway to Inverness and London run once a day . The train station is located in the center of the village, approx. 200 m southeast of the main road.

Attractions

Raitt's Cave

Raitts Cave (also Lynchat; or Scottish Gaelic An Uaimh Mhor - German  "the great cave" ) is one of the basement in Scotland . It is northeast of Kingussie, not far from the A9 (road). Nearby is the Pictish symbol stone of Dunachton .

Ruthven Barracks

The ruins of the Ruthven Barracks are on a moraine hill on the edge of the river marsh; on the other side of the Spey, around 1½ km from the town center. A high outer wall encloses a square inner courtyard. Large crew houses for 60 men each and a small building for the senior officers are integrated into the outer wall. However, the garrison probably never had its maximum crew. Outside the north-western outer wall are the ruins of a stone-walled stable for cavalry riding through . This building was only erected after the actual fortress was built.

River marshes

Insh Marshes

To the south and east of the village, the Spey runs through the extensive Insh Marshes before flowing into Loch Insh around ten kilometers below . The marshes themselves are impassable and protected, but hiking and observation trails have been set up on the moraine slope above natural birch meadows; the Lynachnaggan Trail , the Loch Insh Trail and the Invertromie Trail . These trails are easily accessible from a car park on the B970, about a kilometer east of the Ruthven Barracks.

From the parking lot and the Invertromie Trail , paths lead down through the alluvial forest to two specially set up observation huts , from which the fauna of the marshes can be observed through windows out of the bushes without the animals being disturbed. With luck and patience, you can spot redshanks , lapwing , curlews , field thrushes , deer and otters , for example .

Highland Wildlife Park

The Highland Wildlife Park is about eight kilometers northeast of Kingussie above the A9, just before the neighboring town of Kincraig.

Sports

Shinty

The Kingussie Camanachd Club represents, according to the Guinness Book of Records in 2005, the most successful Shinty team of all time. It won the league 20 times in a row by 2005. It went undefeated for four consecutive years in the early 1990s.

Nature sports

The Spey at Kingussie's

The valley of the Spey and the surrounding mountains of the Highlands are a popular region for hiking and cycling trips. The place is also popular with anglers and hunters.

Regular events

At the annual Kingussie Food on Film Festival in winter, dishes from regional cuisine are prepared and served. Food and culinary arts are discussed, and films on the subject are shown.

Kingussie in literature and media

Kingussie is mentioned in Compton Mackenzie's novel The Monarch of the Glen . In the eighth chapter, the Kingussie Sanatorium , today's St. Vincent's Hospital , plays a role.

Danny Boyle's BBC television series adaptation was filmed in Kingussie and the surrounding area.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Information from the Scottish Parliament
  2. Not to be confused with Bernera on the Isle of Lewis and Harris
  3. a b Scottish History: Ruthven Barracks, Kingussie, Scotland ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Scottish Tourist Information Site, accessed August 13, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.virtualscotland.co.uk
  4. Explanatory boards on site
  5. Explanation board at the parking lot
  6. ^ Club History , Kingussie Camanachd Club, accessed August 13, 2013
  7. Kingussie Food on Film Festival 2013  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 13, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.celebrate-scotland.co.uk  

Web links

Commons : Kingussie  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files