Car park find recalls the historic inferno that changed Aviemore
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Richard III’s bones were found in one some 530 years after he died in battle. Now some bone china has shown up in one in Aviemore after 73 years.
“It was just lying there,” said David Macleod, who was working away tidying up at the village’s retail park this week. “It took me back to an event which happened even before I was born, but I know which really changed everything in Aviemore...”
A piece of a dinner plate bearing the proud livery of the Aviemore Station Hotel was lying in a gutter among the leaves. Some nine years before Mr Macleod arrived in the world, the hotel had been destroyed in a blaze which killed two of the residents and gave birth to an entire holiday resort centre.
The site of the hotel was cleared and, along with its golf course, used a few years later for the construction of the Aviemore Centre.
It was opened by Lady Fraser of Allander – wife of Sir Hugh Fraser, 2nd Baronet, House of Fraser – in 1966.
The Centre, as it became affectionately known, quickly developed into the major Scottish tourist destination it is now.
“This piece of crockery must have a story to tell,” said Mr Macleod. “I’d love to know just how this piece got here, like this.”
If any Strathy reader can tell us more we would be delighted to hear. Does anyone have the other piece – and other memorabilia to share?
September 27, 1950:
Most of the 72 guests were still sleeping when fire swept through the Aviemore Station Hotel, which was also known as the Aviemore Hotel.
Two people were fated to perish in the blaze.
But for the brave intervention of a gallant band of rescuers the toll would have been much greater.
The two victims were an Edinburgh holidaymaker, Ada Monro (56) and Mr GA Daniels (72) of Hampshire.
The building was lost and there would have been more deaths but for the bravery of people like Donnie Maclennan, a 20-year-old railway porter who joined colleagues Bob Mackintosh and William Mundy in risking their lives to save others.
They had spotted an elderly couple trying to make their escape from the blazing building using a knotted rope they had fashioned out of blankets and went to their assistance, ensuring they made it down safely.
Mr Maclennan then went to the aid of another woman using a ladder. It was too short so he placed it on a lorry in order to reach her and bring her down safely to the ground as the fire raged.
