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Coordinates: 57°11'38?N 3°49'23?W? / ?57.194, -3.823
Aviemore[1] (Scottish Gaelic: An Aghaidh Mhòr) is a tourist resort in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. Prior to 1890 it was in an exclave of the county of Moray and from 1890 to 1975 it was in the county of Inverness-shire, until the latter date being within the Civil Parish of Duthil and Rothiemurchus.
The town is popular for skiing and other winter sports, and for hill-walking in the Cairngorm Mountains. Situated within the Cairngorms National Park, Aviemore is one of the largest towns in the park, with a population of 2,397 as of the last census in 2001.
It is the first skiing resort to be established in Scotland and is also notable for being near the freely grazing reindeer herd at Glen More, the only one in the United Kingdom.
The resort has variable quality of snow and weather conditions
The village was transformed in the 1960s by large developments for the tourist industry, and pavements which were designed by John Poulson, later to be the centre of a bribery scandal. However the lack of guaranteed snow meant that the anticipated boom for the centre was shortlived. This, coupled with the quickly-dated 1960s architecture, began losing Aviemore custom. In 2000 many of the original Poulson buildings, along with a Santa Claus theme park, a swimming pool and go-kart track were demolished as part of a promised £50 million overhaul. Although the visitor buildings were replaced many of the other leisure facilities, were not, leading to a further decline in tourism.[2] In 2006 a privately-led tourist organisation began a programme of attracting tourists to the area.[3]
Aviemore lies on the B9152 (the "old" A9 road since the main road from Inverness to Perth was rebuilt further west in the 1980s). Aviemore railway station is on the Highland Main Line and Aviemore is also the southern terminus of the Strathspey Railway, a heritage railway, currently being extended to Grantown-on-Spey.
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(Source: Wikipedia) |