October 26^th 2006 is a day that we and many others in Ardross won't forget in a hury. We had already had 2 weeks of persistently wet weather, and everywhere was very waterloged. The burn that runs through the garden of Beechwood Lodge was already at it's normal high level and flowing fast. The weather forecast on Wednesday night was for more heavy rain.

Early on Thursday morning we were half awake and aware that the burn was particularly noisy from our bedroom. Then the mains electricity tripped. However it was just the sockets that tripped, not the lights. This was no simple power cut and it should have rang alarm bells, but it didn't and we went back to sleep. It wasn't until first light that we properly woke up, drew back the curtains and looked in horror at what we saw.

The burn was flooded well above the deep channel that it normally runs in, and part of the garden was under water. At the end of the garden where the burn passes through a short culverted section, that was over filled and running over the top. Worse was yet to come. When I came downstairs, I found the water was running around the front of the house as well. A quick look in the garage showed several inches of water in there. I opened the back door of the garage to let the water flow out (it was entering from the front). It was time to get dressed and go outside to asses the damage and see what I could do to stop things getting worse.

This was the cause of all our problems. The heavy rain was pouring off the waterloged fields onto the road, and this picture is not of a river, but the road leading to our house: flooding_10    The water was flowing off the road onto our next door neighbours plot: flooding_9    and around both sides of their house: flooding_15    Across their parking area: flooding_4    and under the fence onto our plot where some was running around the front of the house and into the garage: flooding_2    flooding_1    and the rest was flowing under the caravan and around the back of our house: flooding_3   

That front corner of our house is a weakness. It is the point where the ground level is the highest, and it was obvious that the floodwater was pouring in through the air bricks filling up the under floor void. I quickly lifted the trap door in the utility room to confirm this. This was also the cause of the electricity tripping as an electrical junction under the floor was under water. I worked quickly to improvise some sandbags and boards to divert the water away from the air bricks and set my submirsible pump onto the task of pumping out the under floor space. Thankfully the water level never rose high enough to come into the house or do any damage, and thankfully it was just rainwater and not sewage.

Now that things were under control, I could go and take some more photographs. Here are some shots of the flood water in our back garden: flooding_5    flooding_6    flooding_7    flooding_11    flooding_12    flooding_13    flooding_14    These were all taken from the house side of the burn, as it was impossible to cross over. However later as the flood water started to go down, I was able to cross over and take some photo's from up on top of the bank looking down: flooding_16    flooding_17    and here is one looking over at our neighbours house: flooding_18    Here is a picture of the culverted section of the burn showing a chunk of soil that has been washed away: flooding_19

By early afternoon I had just finished unblocking the front drain across the garage doors (blocked by silt) when it started to get windy. Very very windy. At about 3PM, rather quietly and slowly our large beech tree fell over. By some miracle it completly missed the summerhouse and came to rest in the field behind us: fallentree 1    fallentree 2    Some of you may recall our satellite dish was screwed to the base of this tree: squashed dish    No satellite TV for us for a while. I shall be getting a chainsaw soon, and that will do us for firewood for some time to come.

Next day I ventured out and had a look around the area. Lots of fallen trees about, some still blocking minor roads and lots of evidence of where the flood waters have been. I know of at least one friend of ours who had 6 inches of water in their house.

The B9176, the main road into Ardross is blocked. There was a landslide on the steep embanked section leading down to the River Alness crossing at Newbridge. The road surface looks to be intact under the mud and debris, but the stone wall alongside the road has been washed away in places: Newbridge 1    Newbridge 2    Newbridge 3    Newbridge 4    Newbridge 5    Newbridge 6    Newbridge 7    We have heard that part of the retaining wall is now bulging, so the repairs required are quite major. It will be a while before that road re opens. In the mean time we have to take the "byroad" into Alness to get to and from Ardross.

Lastly if we thought we had it bad in Ardross, spare a thought for people in the town of Dingwall, 12 miles from Ardross. Part of the town centre was under 4 feet of water with many houses flooded. Many other towns and villages suffered badly and many roads suffered flooding and landslips.