Cairn Gorm the Mountain

Cairn Gorm is the summit most visitors mean when they say they “went to the Cairngorms” for the day: the road up from Glenmore, the Ptarmigan, the plateau stretching off in a way that does not photograph as a nice cone. It is a proper mountain wearing ski infrastructure. On a good winter day it is busy. On a bad day it is closed and you should listen.

Up there

Wind. Sudden cloud. A plateau that has no interest in your trainers. If you leave the marked bits, you are in wild land. If you stay at the car park, you have not been up Cairn Gorm, you have been to a car park with a view of it.

Aviemore is the useful town. Glenmore is the useful woods. The park around it is the Cairngorms page. We named a candle after the massif because that dry, cold, pine-and-granite air is a real smell. Cairngorms the jar.