Cairngorms and East Coast

The Cairngorms are the focal point of a national park in north east Scotland, established in 2003. It was the second of two national parks established by the Scottish Parliament, after Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, set up in 2002. The park covers the Cairngorms range of mountains, and surrounding hills. Already the largest national park in the British Isles, in 2010 it expanded into Highland and Perth and Kinross. Extending east from the Cairngorms, the region is bounded by the Moray Firth and the North Sea. Geographically diverse, the landscape in the south of the region is comprised predominantly of undulating farmland, but as you travel further north, this gives way to wooded glens, mountains and increasingly harsh land fringed by a dramatic coast of cliffs and long sandy beaches.

1 / 30

Loch an Eilein - Cairngorms

Loch an Eilein comes from the Scottish Gaelic and means 'Loch of the island'. An extremely beautiful sheet of water, reflecting the magnificent pines of Rothiemurchus Forest in which it lies. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the loch was used mainly for two things. On the banks of the loch there is a limestone kiln where the lime stone was collected from a rockface looking over the loch. Also loggers used the connecting river to float logs down to the wood-treating factories downstream. Rob Roy and other cattle rustlers used the loch, and one side of the loch is called 'Thieves Way'.

National Park National Scenic Area landscape trees forest loch water reflections clouds