Monadhliath Mountains

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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Monadhliath (Gael. 'grey hills'), a chain of mountains in Inverness-shire, extending north-eastward between Glenmore and Strathspey, and culminating in Carn Mairg (3087 feet), 16¼ miles E by S of Fort Augustus. Heavy, rounded, and barren, its mountains exhibit no grandeur of form. They chiefly consist of granite and quartzite, and rest on an elevated base or plateau of desolate heathy moor. Great herds of black cattle feed amongst their glens, and large flocks of sheep are pastured on their slopes; but their irksome solitudes, their vast and dreary wastes, are abandoned to the grouse, the ptarmigan, the roe, and the red deer.—Ord. Sur., shs. 73, 74, 1878-77.

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