Tidy up starts in Badenoch and Strathspey after the big storm
A big clear up was under way in Badenoch and Strathspey on Friday after some of the worst gales Badenoch and Strathspey has seen in living memory.
Police said it was "very lucky" that no-one had been badly hurt in the storm, which pulled trees down on to roads throughout the area.
High winds were recorded an astonishing 165mph at the top of CairnGorm Mountain - just shy of the 173mph highest gusts ever recorded in the UK.
The high winds - with gusts topping 80mph in the valley - blew three perspex panels off the roof of the Dalfaber Country Club in Aviemore.
Rain fell through the open space into the swimming pool while the storm raged on.
"Fortunately there was no-one in the pool at the time," said the club’s general manager Johann Redfearn, "but we were left with an open air pool as you can see the daylight through the roof! "
Ms Redfearn went on: "One of the perspex panels hit the rear of sales office manager Michelle Russell’s car, putting a big dent in it and smashing the back lights.
"The high winds also caused a flagpole to split at the front of the building."
Ms Redfearn added that Dalfaber customers who wanted to use the pool were being given the use of the pool at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort.
Two parked cars in Glen Road in Newtonmore were crushed by falling trees, while the storms also caused trees to crash into a house in nearby Old Glen Road.
Engineer Douglas Macintyre saw the carnage which the winds had wreaked when he went for a walk at about 4pm.
He said: "There must have been half a dozen trees which came down in Glen Road alone, and these were big trees that had been uprooted."
Remarkably, the only injury caused by the storm was a minor one to a woman who was hit by a trampoline in Grantown and sought treatment in the town’s medical centre.
The A9 was closed for four hours at Drumochter last night because of the number of fallen trees on the route in Tayside. The vital route eventually re-opened at around 9pm.
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The A9 was not without its problems in the strath with police on the scene to divert traffic around a tree which had fallen and blocked the northbound lane of the road just south of the Slochd at around 5.45pm.
Around 2,500 homes in the Highlands are understood to still be without power.
For more on the big storm and its aftermath see the next issue of the "Strathy" out on Wednesday.
