Cairn Gorm


(Carn Gorm, Cairngorm)

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Cairngorm, a mountain on the mutual border of Kirkmichael parish, Banffshire, and Abernethy parish, Inverness-shire, culminating 3 miles NE of the summit of Ben Macdhui in Aberdeenshire. It has a conical outline, and rises to an altitude of 4084 feet above sea-level. It is clothed, over much of its sides, with Scotch pine forest, and covered on the top almost all the year round with snow; and it stands grouped with a great knot of the Grampians, occupying an area of about 140 square miles, sending off the head-streams of the river Dee, and of great affluents of the Spey, and often called from it the Cairngorm group. The mountain-masses of the group are broken and dissevered by intervening depressions and intersecting glens; their rocks are famous for containing numerous specimens of the beautiful rock crystals popularly called Cairngorm stones; the shoulders of some of them break down in stupendous precipices; the shoulders and skirts of others are clothed with verdure or with forest; and some of the glens display sublime features of alpine scenery.—Ord. Sur., sh. 74,1877. See Hill Burton's Cairngorm Mountains (Edinb. 1864).

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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