Pass of Drumochter

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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Drumochter (Gael. druim-uachdar, 'upper ridge'), a mountain pass (1500 feet) over the Central Grampians, on the mutual border of Perth and Inverness shires, 5¾ miles S of Dalwhinnie station, and 2 NNW of Dalnaspidal. Flanked to the W by the Boar of Badenoch (2452 feet), Bruach nan Iomalrean (3175), and Ben Udlaman (3306), to the W by Creagan Doire an Donaidh (2367) and Chaoruinn (3004), it is traversed both by the Great North Road from Perth to Inverness and by the Highland railway, being the highest point reached by any railway in the Kingdom. Snow often drifts here to a great extent, lying 30 feet deep in the storm of March 1881.—Ord. Sur., sh. 63,1873.

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