Grampian Mountains - Extent

Extent

There is some ambiguity about the extent of the range. In the introduction of Wyness (1968) the author, writing about Deeside, puts the northern-edge of the Grampians at the River Dee when he writes:

... until comparatively recent times, Deeside was an isolated and little frequented region and the reason for this is the extensive mountain barrier of the Grampians which begins in a low range on the sea-coast immediately south of Aberdeen and rise through various intervening heights such as Cairn-mon-earn (1,245 ft), Kerloch (1,747 ft), Mount Battoch (2,555 ft), Mount Keen (3,007 ft), Lochnagar (3,786 ft), Beinn a' Ghlo (3,671 ft), to Beinn Dearg (3,304 ft) —Wyness (1968) (p. 1)

Clearly, then, Wyness defines the Cairngorm as being the range of mountains running from immediately south of Aberdeen’ westward to Beinn Dearg in the Forest of Atholl.

In Watson (1975) the author – while defining the extent of the Cairngorms – specifically excludes the range south of the River Dee, writing:

The other main hill group is the long chain running from Drumochter in the W almost to the sea just S of Aberdeen. Many maps and books have given its name as ‘the Grampians’ but although children have to learn this at school, they do not learn it at home and nowhere is it used in local speech. Some map-makers have confused the issue by printing ‘Grampians’ over the Cairngorms and Strath Don hills as well! —Watson (1975) (p. 19)

This is clearly poorly researched by Watson and anyone local or familiar with Aberdeen know the hills on the southern outskirts of the town (now a country park) as 'the Gramps', a clear contraction of Grampians.

Both Wyness and Watson roughly agree where the eastern, northern, and western limits of The Cairngorms lie.

The Grampians extend southwest to northeast between the Highland Boundary Fault and Gleann Mòr (the Great Glen), occupying almost half of the land-area of Scotland. This includes the Cairngorms and the Lochaber hills. The range includes Ben Nevis (the highest point in the British Isles at 1,344 metres above sea level) and Ben Macdui (the second highest at 1,309 metres).

The mountains are composed of granite, gneiss, marble, schists and quartzite. The other major mountain ranges in Scotland are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands.

A number of rivers and streams rise in the Grampians: the Tay, Spey, Cowie Water, Burn of Muchalls, Burn of Pheppie, Burn of Elsick, Cairnie Burn, Don, Dee and Esk. The area is generally sparsely populated.