The Cairngorms

 

                                                                         

                                                      CAIRNGORM MOUNTAIN

                                                LANDSCAPE, CULTURE, AND HISTORY

                                                                  

Distinctive planned towns

The pink and grey-tinged granite buildings and slated roofs of designed villages and small towns, dating mainly from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, are an integral part of the landscape. Nestled unobtrusively in the glens and straths, usually well-sheltered with trees, they provide a reassuring solidity. They are rural in character having no high-rise buildings or city traffic and are a reminder of historical and social context. Although each planned settlement has its own character and layout, they all have a main central street, often with geometric streets running perpendicular. Typically there is a treelined square, surrounded by large, public, stone buildings.

                        A Secret History (Paperback)

Patrick Baker has devoted years to rediscovering this history, searching remote mountain crags and finding fascinating relics of the dramas and tragedies of the past. He comes across the high-level shelters of the plateau - the refuges once used by generations of climbers, but now crumbling into obscurity. Elsewhere, he finds the skeletal remains of aircraft debris, an ancient gem mine, an outlaw's hideaway and a mysterious aristocratic settlement. He wanders the hills in search of the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui, geological oddities, and the elusive Scottish wildcat.

The result of his quest is a unique travelogue that explores the human impact of this stunning landscape, the story of the early days of mountaineering in the Cairngorms and the secrets of a past which is stranger than fiction.

                                                              NATIONAL PARK

                                                                          

                                                                      WIKIPEDIA

                                               

                                                                               

The Cairngorms feature the highest, coldest and snowiest plateaus in the British Isles and are home to five of the six highest mountains in Scotland:^[19]

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

There are no public roads through the Cairngorms, and all the public roads in the general area either skirt the Cairngorms or stop short, providing access to them only. From the south and south-east, motorised access ends at Linn of Dee, or Allanaquoich. From the north-west, a road passes Coylumbridge, Glenmore and the Sugarbowl to end at the car park at the Cairngorm Mountain ski resort.^[12] The majority of hill-walkers access the range from these road ends.^[1

                                            LANDSCAPE FASHIONED BY GEOLOGY

                                                         CARVED OUT OF GRANITE

                                                                                

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