SPEY, a river in the north of Scotland, rises in the south-east of Inverness-shire from a small tarn called Loch Spey, 5 miles east of the Caledonian Canal, and flows north-eastwards by Kingussie to Grantown in Elginshire, 10 miles below which it reaches Banffshire. After forming for about 15 miles the boundary between Elginshire and Banffshire, it again enters the former county, through which it flows for about 10 miles past Fochabers to the Moray Firth. In the earlier part of its course it is fed by a large number of mountain streams, its principal tributaries being, in Inverness-shire, the Tromie and the Feshie from the right and the Dulnain from the left, and on the boundaries of Banff and Elgin the Avon (Aven) and the Fiddich from the right. Its entire length is 96 miles, and it drains an area of about 1200 square miles. The flow of the river is very rapid, and, being fed largely by mountain streams, it is subject to sudden freshets, which sometimes occasion extensive floods, the greatest being that of 1829. The Spey is, next to the Tay and the Tweed, the most important salmon river in Scotland. The scenery in its upper courses is occasionally bare and bleak, but sometimes finely picturesque, especially where, as in Elginshire and Banffshire, its bold and rocky banks are clothed by forests of birch and pine.

See L. Shaw, History of the Province of Moray (1st ed. 1775, 3d ed. 1882), and Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Account of the Moray Floods (1st ed. 1830, 4th ed. 1873).