The Grampian Mountains

I never really understood the difference between The Grampians and The Cairngorms except that I thought the Grampians are part of the Cairngorms. It turns out that I had things entirely around the wrong way.

“The Grampian Mountains, Am Monadh in Gaelic, are one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, ranging from the southwest to the northwest between the Highland Boundary Fault and the Great Glen. The Grampian Mountains occupy nearly half of the land area of Scotland and includes the Cairngorms and the two highest mountains in the United Kingdom; Ben Nevis (1,345m) in Fort William and Ben Macdui (1,309m) here in the Cairngorms National Park.

The Cairngorms, Am Monadh Ruadh in Gaelic, are mountains that form part of the Grampians and are perhaps the most famous of the mountain ranges. Roughly translated as The Red Mountains, the Cairngorms got its name from the rosy-red pink granite that would have been the dominant colour of the mountain after the last glaciers retreated during the ice age and the freshly shattered granite rocks were exposed, bare of soil and vegetation. Today, most of those sharp, freshly shattered rocks have been rounded by frost and snow and are a grey colour with a covering of lichens and mosses, suited to the extreme high-altitude life.”

Robert Smith has a good description of the Grampians in the introduction to his book Grampian Ways: Journey over the Mounth.

“It is clear enough where the Grampians begin; no one is certain where they end. The limits of the range have been as elastic as the whims of cartographers, so that the word Grampian has become an uncertain scrawl on many maps.”

“The name itself has uncertain origins. It was said to have come from the Gaelic “gruaim” meaning gloominess and “beinn” a mountain, and that the Grampians were called the gloomy mountains, on account of the clouds that often cover them. The historian Hector Boece is also blamed for fostering the word by confusing the words “Graupius” and “Grampius”. Whateverthe answer, the word Grampian stuck, bringing a slow erosion and finally the virtual disappearance of the ancient name of the mountain chain - the Mounth.”