During her Cairngorm visit, Ruth Davidson spoke about pressing issues with locals and to a snowboarder who turned out to be the son of a famous former Liberal Party leader in the 70s and 80s.
The Scottish Conservative party leader was launching her rural manifesto yesterday as part of her campaign ahead of the upcoming Scottish Parliamentary elections in May.
Graeme Steel, of Galashiels, is the son of former Lib Dem leader David Steel, and was walking off the slopes with his snowboarding friends when he noticed Ms Davidson and bagged himself a selfie with the politician.
The Conservative voter said he was “ecstatic” to have met Ms Davidson in the flesh.
Local man Duncan Ferguson, who has been operations manager of the Spey District Fishery Board for 26 years, also spoke to Ms Davidson about a dam which is in the process of being reclassified to improve salmon stocks in the River Spey for the first time in 70 years.
Spey Dam, which is owned and operated by Rio Tinto Alcan, diverts water from the Spey catchment to lochs Crunachden and Kinloch Laggan, and ultimately to the company’s aluminium smelter at Fort William, in Lochaber.
Construction started on the dam in 1939 as part of an Act of Parliament to smelt aluminium for aircraft in World War II.
Since then, the dam has severely curtailed access by salmon to the extensive spawning in the upper Spey tributary.
Angling on the River Spey generates more than £12million a year for the local economy and sustains 367 full-time equivalent jobs.
Mr Ferguson said: “Below the dam, the river is getting smaller and smaller because there’s not enough water coming down.
“The dam stops the downstream movement of sediment. The combination of the two means a lack of habitat and lack of fish and a knock-on effect on the wider economy of the Spey Valley.
“Ruth said they would look into the Act of Parliament and get back to us with a response.”
