The Cairngorms are in eastern Scotland, in the heart of the highlands. One of the largest remaining wilderness areas in the UK. Go to MULTIMAP, GETAMAP or one of the other mapping sites to get a location map. I last visited in 1991, which is rather a long time ago now I come to write it down. The Cairngorms have 1,500 square miles of granite mountains, including 43 Munros (mountains which are at least 3000ft high - I've scaled a few in my time...) The mountains are flanked by 2 valleys: Deeside and Speyside - the latter producing some rather nice malts.
On September 1st, 2003 the Cairngorms were officially opened as a NATIONAL PARK: the UK's newest
(at the time of writing...)
Lairig Ghru is one of many troughs in the area. Along the sides of the trough are pro-talus ramparts. These run close to the actual peak of Cairn Gorm.
The website of FETTES COLLEGE has some excellent material on the Cairngorms. The page this links to has details and photos of some of the landscapes of the Cairngorms, which include examples of Pre-glacial, Glacial and Periglacial landforms. Official and authoritative information on these pages from Dr. Adrian Hall, and also a rather splendid building which I passed in October on the way back from the SAGT Conference. Recommended. Revisited the site recently and it has lots of new materials on Glacial Erosion and Deposition.
Some FROZEN GROUND stuff here all the way from Southampton. See the URL ? Change the number for a few more bits of information. This is a useful general tip when exploring sites. If you've found one useful page, there may be several other ones nearby with similar names...
One of the best sites I've come across yet is SCOTLAND ONLINE's Outdoors pages. Recommended.
Some good pictures from G Shaw HERE. His pictures seem to crop up on several websites.
The landscape includes high plateaus which have almost Arctic conditions, and wildlife such as Ptarmigans, plus Forest parks and RSPB reserves such as the one at Loch Garten, famous for the Osprey viewing platforms.
The Fettes site has some useful case studies such as the CORRIE of Coire an-t Sneachda: 'the corrie of the snows' - very good.
Picture courtesy of Dr. Adrian Hall at http://www.fettes.com/Cairngorms. Click the thumbnail to enlarge.
In addition to the photographs, there's also a cross section, and further information on a range of topics.
A recent issue has been the construction of a funicular railway to the summit of Cairn Gorm. The OFFICIAL SITE is here. The slogan is:
"a Natural High!"
FUNICULAR RAILWAY site has some useful information. There are apparently 2 timetables for the railway: a summer and a winter timetable. At the top of the railway is the Ptarmigan building. There is a webcam on the official site.
JIM WILLSHER has also produced an interesting site. One of the best aspects is the PHOTOS section. There are some areas where the photos of the ruined landscape are juxtaposed with quotes on the area.
Chris Townsend produced an excellent article on Scotland Online (See link earlier)
The railway resulted in the destruction of a corrie (Coire Cas)
There are also 17 ski-lifts in the Cairngorm Ski Area. Try CAIRNGORM MOUNTAIN Ltd for details on mountain walking tours.
Many thanks to Val Vannet for sending the diagram below of the corries of Braeriach, produced by the ANQUET mapping software. I recommend you go along to the website and get hold of the DEMO. Now have the 1: 50 000 National Parks disc which features the Cairngorms and the funicular railway.
Click to enlarge.