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From “The Great Moray Floods of 1829” by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, published 1832
The River Findhorn rises from a wide morass, covering the flat summit of a mountain in the midst of the Monadh-leadh group, and runs through a direct line of country of not less than sixty miles, its sinuosities being about thirty more. Perhaps no river of the same size in Great Britain possesses so exquisite, so continued and yet so varied a range of scenery as it does, from within a few miles of its source till it approaches the sea-port to which it gives its name. After leaving its bleak parent hill, it runs through a deep ravine in the primitive rocks, whence it enters a beautiful pastoral glen and valley, bounded by steep and high mountains, with occasional rocky faces, but generally covered with a rich and valuable herbage. From all I could learn, the rain on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of August [1829] was without parallel in those regions. The damage done by the river and its tributaries was immense; but the manner in which the destruction was scattered, renders it impossible to attempt any detail of it.
Lower down, where the valley becomes generally cultivated, the estates of Dalmigavie on the right bank, and Killochie on the left, suffered severely. These are small Highland properties, and the farms poor; but the calamity is not lessened by such considerations; on the contrary, the catalogue of human misery is greatly swelled by these very circumstances, where, in many instances, nearly the whole crops of corn and potatoes were destroyed. The property of Mr Mackintosh of Balnespick has been injured very severely. At the farm of Clunes, the burn burst through the garden; and the Findhorn, abandoning its course altogether, cut an entirely new channel for itself, for at least a quarter of a mile in length and at the distance of not less than 200 yards from its former run, isolating a fine alluvial field and utterly ruining its surface.
The river indeed filled the valley, though, in some places not much less than half a mile wide; and the tributary burns destroyed all the small bridges and conduits on the district roads. The little burn of Aultaneachgra, coming from the left, did a world of mischief in a small space, filling up and ruining the dams and watercourses of its carding and meal mills, injuring the houses and machinery, and leaving all in a state of silent, melancholy and motionless ruin. Where the burn joins the river, the valley was one sea and at least twenty acres of crop and land were ruined or carried off. A little below this point, the side of a wooded hill, 80 or 100 feet high, slid down at once, owing to the soaking rain loosening the soil behind; and the great public road was covered with the debris and with large trees, many of them in the growing position. It is worth remarking, that the materials of this hill were naturally quite dry. We now come to the site of the old bridge of Corrybrugh or, as more commonly called, the Bridge of Freeburn. It consisted of three arches and nothing now remains but the ruins of the two land abutments.
The estate of Tomatin, on the left bank, was chiefly injured in crop and grass.The flood covered the greater part of the extended flat where the house stands; but though it threatened the mansion, it did little harm.