Interactive map
This is not a surveyor's map. It is a story map: source, tributaries, towns, whisky, salmon work, casting water, and the mouth where the river gives itself to the Moray Firth.
Choose a numbered stop, or move with the Previous and Next buttons.
Source water
The Spey begins at Loch Spey in the Monadhliath Mountains, high enough and quiet enough that the famous river still feels like a private thought. From here it runs north-east, gathering tributaries, speed, names, and human attention on the way to the Moray Firth.
Start here because every later story depends on this small beginning: salmon, whisky, casting, estates, and conservation all need the river before they can become culture.
The river line is plotted from real published coordinates for the source, mouth, and the towns along the way, then smoothed for legibility — the bends are the river's, not decoration. Wikipedia, River Spey; Wikipedia, Loch Spey; River Spey Partnership catchment characteristics; River Spey management overview; VisitScotland Speyside Malt Whisky Trail; Scotch Whisky Association whisky regions.