Cairngorm mountains

Abstract

The granite mountains of the Cairngorms form a distinctive and internationally important landscape. Two recent studies provide new information to help develop Earth heritage interpretation and site management. The Cairngorm Mountains make up the largest continuous area of high ground above 1,000m in Britain and include most of the highest summits in Scotland. These mountains, with their distinctive plateau surfaces and glacially sculptured features, became part of Scotland’s second National Park in 2003. They are also included in the UK Tentative List of World Heritage Sites for their exceptional landforms and geological history. In particular, the Cairngorms provide unique insights into the processes of mountain landscape evolution and environmental change in a maritime, mid-latitude setting in the northern hemisphere over the last 400 million years