The Gannochy Brig
This is a picture of the Gannochy Brig over the River North Esk, near the former United States Navy Base, R.A.F. Edzell, Angus, Scotland, and is signed by J. Huwit Barrie.
The stream on the right comes from Gannochy Lodge, a hunting lodge used by the American industrialist and millionaire J. Pierpoint Morgan on his annual trips and holidays during the grouse and deer hunting seasons in the 1930s. He was very much liked by the people of the area.
During WWII his paintings and other valuables were taken from Gannochy Lodge and stored secretly along with artefacts belonging to others to prevent them being confiscated by the, then, enemy.
The path which runs alongside the river, on the left of the picture but out of view, was entered by what the US servicemen, women and dependants christened "The Blue Door" and by which it is now known to all. The area was much loved by the Americans and was a favourite spot for walking and barbequing.
I bought the picture at a sale in Dundee in the 1960s and the back was padded with a page from a 1936 newspaper. It contained articles on Col. Lindbergh, the famous aviator, who had just purchased property in England, and another that Italian troops of Benito Mussolini had invaded North Africa.