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172 
THE VITAL DIVERSION By E. C. 0. PETRIE . .
Page 94
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. or how they brought the goods from Consett to Tomnavoulin ONE Saturday afternoon this summer a heavy articulated outfit pulled up in the isolated village of Tomintoul, Banffshire-1.200 ft. above sea level among the Cairngorms, and proudly claiming to be the highest village in the Highlands.
The lorry was loaded with a massive piece of earth-moving equipment destined for the site of the new Grant .Distillery at Tomnavoulin, sonic seven miles from Tomintoul, along the Dufftown road.
How the long, heavily laden vehicle ever reached Tomintoul from Grantownon-Spey is something of a mystery. The road is narrow and very winding, with gradients of 1 in 4, and has many narrow bridges difficult enough to negotiate in a medium-sized car.
Inquiries of a member of the crew revealed that the vehicle had come from Consett, Co. Durham, and that apparently it had been misrouted at Grantown and should have reached its destination by a somewhat less hazardous, if longer, route. The use of greased baulks of timber and help from a farm tractor had been necessary to slew the trailer safely across the notorious Bridge of Brown and Bridge of Avon.
Now that Tomintoul had been reached, however, an impasse had materialized. Several attempts were made to negotiate the turning into the Dufftown road, but it was soon apparent that no amount of manccuvring could get the lorry around the corner. Only the demolition of some granite cottages would have made this a possibility.
However, after some discussion, and fortified by a " wee dram" or two, the driver and his mate went on a tour of inspection with the village constable. A way was found to by-pass the awkward corner by going behind the shops and cottages in the square and crossing a field of rough pasture. Permission was sought to burst through a post and wire fence, and this was granted. And so the outfit moved off again. Then, with deliberate but firm determination, the front end pushed the fence asunder, crossed the field and gained the Dufftown road some 100 yards beyond the offending corner.
All that was then necessary was to cut and hack lengths of wire from wheels and various parts of the vehicle's nether regions, and soon, to cheers from the villagers, the eagerly awaited earthmoving equipment was on its last triumphant lap to Tomnavoulin.
After all, every obstacle successfully overcome in the building of a whisky distillery is definitely something to cheer about!