A Walk by the River

The River Averon Walk has always been a popular local walk. Now that the path has been upgraded and the route extended walkers should allow 2 hours for the complete walk.

The walk is generally flat with no excessive hills. From the car park in the centre of the village you can make it as long or short as you like.

The Alness River Valley, in which the River Averon flows, is one of the few remaining fragments of the richer river valley woodlands of Easter Ross containing a complete range of the tree species characteristic of rich soils.

These include oak, ash and elm as well as bird cherry, hazel and alder. The ground flora is particularly rich and the presence of rock cuttings, steep flushed banks and a fairly wide flood plain results in a highly diverse flora.

There is a good range of characteristic woodland birds and other animals, while the river margin adds further diversity to the fauna.

The mouth of the river opens up to the Cromarty Firth, one of Scotland's deepest natural harbours and a safe haven for a diverse assemblage of wintering waterfowl, including nationally important wintering populations of pintail, scaup, red-breasted merganser, curlew and redshank.

The proposed Special Protection Area recognises the importance of the area for breeding birds including our resident population of cormorant.

During the war years the flat ground around the rive and along the firth made ideal landing strips for a more rigid winged variety. Alness came under No.4 (C) Operational Training Unit and Evanton came under the control of both the RAF and Fleet Air Arm, where hundreds of pilots and air gunners were trained in Catalinas, Sunderlands, Ansons, Fairy Battles and several other types of aircraft.

The old RAF site at Alness Point has recently been developed as an industrial estate and one of the first buildings has a design which those fly boys would have approved of.

Still standing on the new site are two disused buildings from the distant past. Looking a bit mysterious, one is almost completely covered up and the other standing proud of the flat surround.

The ice house is a remnant from a wealthier past used to service some of the local manor houses. The large grain mill or girnal was built in 1774 by Captain James Munro and his wife Margaret.

One other industrial building very much in use, by the river, is the Teaninich Distillery built in 1817. The present building produces a single malt for blending and a 10 year old single malt in a bottle featuring a porpoise, the symbol of the distillery.