Cairngorm

Cairngorm rises toward the eastern rim of the Scottish Highlands as a broad granite massif of high plateaus, corries and rounded summits. Cairn Gorm itself reaches 1,245 metres and looks over Strathspey; deeper in the range, Ben Macdui rises above it. Arctic-alpine vegetation, exposed tors and long-lasting snow patches mark a landscape where wind and sudden storms can close simple routes.

High passes linked the inhabited straths rather than crossing the summits. From the Middle Ages onward, herders and cattle drovers used tracks through the mountains to move stock between Speyside, Deeside and southern markets. Farmsteads and shielings occupied the lower glens, while cattle raiding made control of routes a matter of local power. The name Cairn Gorm comes from Scottish Gaelic An Càrn Gorm, the blue or green cairn.

By the eighteenth century the mountains formed a rugged interior between Highland communities and the growing towns of Moray. Drovers, soldiers and travelers crossed their passes, but the high ground remained thinly settled and difficult in winter. Cairngorm's place from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century was therefore one of resource, pastoral movement and exposure rather than permanent upland settlement.