Cairngorms - Mountains

Mountains

The Cairngorms feature the highest, coldest and snowiest plateaux in the British Isles and are home to five of the six highest mountains in Scotland:

• Ben Macdhui (1309 m)
• Braeriach (1296 m)
• Cairn Toul (1293 m)
• Sgor an Lochain Uaine (1258 m)
• Cairn Gorm (1245 m)

These mountains are all Munros, and there are a further 13 mountains with this categorisation across the area, of which another five are among the twenty highest peaks in the country.

After she had climbed to the top of Ben Macdui on 7 October 1859, Queen Victoria wrote: "It had a sublime and solemn effect, so wild, so solitary — no one but ourselves and our little party there . . . I had a little whisky and water, as the people declared pure water would be too chilling."

The Cairngorms represent a major barrier to travel and trade across Scotland and helped to create the remote character of the Highlands that persists today. Passes through the hills such as the Lairig Ghru were extensively used by drovers in the 19th Century herding their cattle to market in the Lowlands, from their smallholdings in the Highlands.

The region is drained by the Rivers Dee and Spey; and the latter's two tributaries: the Rivers Feshie and Avon.

The Cairngorms hold some of the longest-lying snow patches in Scotland. The area is sparsely populated due to the extreme nature of the climate. Snow patches can remain on the hills until August or September, while in the Garbh Coire Mòr of Braeriach the snow melted just five times in the last century. In the last few years, however, the quantity and longevity of Cairngorm snow patches has declined significantly. The lowest recorded temperature in the United Kingdom has twice been recorded in the Cairngorms, at Braemar, where a temperature of -27.2oC, was recorded on 11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982. The greatest British wind speed 150 knots (170 mph or 274 km/h)was recorded on Cairngorm Summit on 20 March 1986, where speeds of over 100 mph (160 km/h) are common.