Dalwhinnie Voices
No: 555 Contributor: No Contributor Year: 2015
New Picture
Ben Alder Lodge from the middle of Loch Ericht, July 1981. In this photo you can see all the old buildings. From Left to right, I can't remember what the one on the little hill with the red roof was for. Just to the right of it is the Larder, where we butchered and stored the carcasses until the game dealer collected them. Through the trees you can see the white window frames of the bothy where the ghillies stayed, then there are the garages, which were in a kind of courtyard shape, then the lodge itself. In 1981/82 the loch level was lowered for maintenance to the tunnels at either end and just in front of the lodge you can just make out the old wooden pier which reappeared as the water levels fell.
Picture added on 21 August 2015 at 07:08
The building on the hill was just known as "The old bothy" and it stored all the tongue and grooved wood that came out of what we called the "tin section" of the lodge which was taken down in 1966/1967. It also had some old furniture stored in it which my sisters and I had great fun turning in to a "house"
Added by Sheila Rogerson on 22 August 2015
Hi Sheila, thanks for that. Funny, it wasn't until I looked out the photo that I realised I hadn't a clue what the building was and had never been in it. I do remember going out in the rowing boat to take the picture. With the money I earned in 1981 working on the estate I bought myself a rather splendid 35mm Pentax camera. I remember your Dad always being keen on photography and I'm sure I'm in a few of his pics. Who has all those pots now? They must be a fantastic archive of his time as Head Stalker. I guess we must have met all those years ago. I think I'm right in saying that Geordie and Myra had three daughters and I know I met you all at some point. The place looks amazing now. I've just posted up a couple of pics I took last year from high up on Beinn Udlamain across the loch. I've also just come across a newspaper cutting from 1995 which I'm going to post on the site. It describes the start of building the lodge and a little bit about the new owner.
Added by Mark Cullen on 23 August 2015
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