Derry Cairngorm is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 mountain in the Cairngorms

Cairngorms

The Cairngorms are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain of the same name - Cairn Gorm.-Name:...

 range, 14 kilometres north west of Braemar

Braemar

Braemar is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, around west of Aberdeen in the Highlands. It is the closest significantly-sized settlement to the upper course of the River Dee sitting at an altitude of ....

 in the county of Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...

.

Overview

With a height of 1155 m (3789 ft), it is the 21st highest Munro

Munro

A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over . They are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet , who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munros Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit over 3,000 ft which is not regarded as a separate mountain...

. Derry Cairngorm is regarded as part of the central group of Cairngorm hills, along with Ben Macdui and Càrn a' Mhàim

Càrn a' Mhàim

Càrn a' Mhàim is a Scottish mountain situated in the inner part of the Cairngorms range, some 15 kilometres west of Braemar in the county of Aberdeenshire.- Overview :...

. Macdui stands four km to the north west and they are connected by a col with a height of 1014 m. The mountain was originally named An Carn Gorm but was renamed to Carn Gorm an Doire to avoid confusion with the nearby Cairn Gorm

Cairn Gorm

Cairn Gorm is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands overlooking Strathspey and the town of Aviemore. At 1245 metres it is the sixth highest mountain in the United Kingdom...

. The name has now been anglicised to Derry Cairngorm: the original Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic language

Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....

 means “Blue cairn of Derry”. Derry is the anglicisation of doire, or doireach, meaning wooded, a reference to the Scots pine

Scots Pine

Pinus sylvestris, commonly known as the Scots Pine, is a species of pine native to Europe and Asia, ranging from Scotland, Ireland and Portugal in the west, east to eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains, and as far north as well inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia...

s that adorn the southern slope of the mountain near Derry Lodge, remnants of the old Caledonian Forest

Caledonian Forest

The Caledonian Forest is the name of a type of woodland that once covered vast areas of Scotland. Today, however, only 1% of the original forest survives, covering in 84 locations. The forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife, much of which is not found elsewhere in the British...

. The hill is well seen from Inverey

Inverey

Inverey is a hamlet on Mar Lodge Estate, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that straddles the Ey Burn close to its confluence with the River Dee.Inverey comprises two 'communities' separated by the Ey Burn - Muckle Inverey on the east bank and Little Inverey on the west.-John Farquharson, 3rd of...

 and often appears as dark blue in colour, however from other angles it takes on a distinct pink tinge as result of its granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 rocks (see photo).

Geography

Derry Cairngorm is an eight-kilometre-long ridge-type mountain that runs north to south, it rises from Glen Luibeg in the south and concludes at Coire Etchachan in the north, where it is joined to Beinn Mheadhoin

Beinn Mheadhoin

Beinn Mheadhoin is a mountain in Scotland. By some counts it is the tenth highest mountain of Great Britain. It lies in the very heart of the Cairngorm mountains, and is one of the most remote hills in the region....

. Coire Etchachan has Loch Etchachan lying within it, at a height of 930 metres the highest notable expanse of water in Great Britain. It has trout living in it. On its eastern flanks the mountain falls steeply and craggily into Glen Derry while its western flanks descend more moderately to the valley of the infant Luibeg Burn. Derry Cairngorm is characterised by large granite boulders on its higher slopes which make walking in the summit area difficult, the walker often having to resort to hopping between boulders. This large expanse of boulders is formed by the action of freezing and thawing in a periglacial

Periglacial

Periglacial is an adjective originally referring to places in the edges of glacial areas, but it has later been widely used in geomorphology to describe any place where geomorphic processes related to freezing of water occur...

 environment and is known as a blockfield or felsenmeer. All drainage from the mountain flows south via the Derry and Luibeg burns to join the River Dee

River Dee, Aberdeenshire

The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through Strathdee to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen...

, eventually reaching the sea at Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

.

Derry Cairngorm has two subsidiary summits listed in the Munro Tables. Creagan a' Choire Etchachan (1108 m) stands 1.5 km north of the main summit and is a fine viewpoint down into the wild Coire Etchachan. Sgurr an Lochan Uaine (983 m), 1.5 km north east, is seen as just a hump near the cliff edge from the main summit but is more distinct when seen from Glen Derry, which it overlooks. Eight hundred metres south of the summit lies an unnamed point with a height of 1040 m. This is the former "top" called Little Cairngorm, which was deleted from the tops' list in 1974.

Ascents

Derry Cairngorm can be climbed from either the east or west sides of the Cairngorm range and either singly or in combination with other hills. The ascent from the east starts at the Linn of Dee car park and takes the track to Derry Lodge (a bicycle can used as far as the lodge). The southern ridge of Derry Cairngorm is then ascended to reach the summit, crossing Little Cairngorm on the way. The mountain can be climbed from the Cairn Gorm ski centre car park and involves climbing and crossing Ben Macdui before continuing to Derry Cairngorm. The Ben Macdui summit plateau can be a hazardous place in mist and bad weather. The ascent from the Linn of Dee can also include climbing Càrn a' Mhàim and Ben Macdui. This is a long hard day's walking of over 30 kilometres, although the use of a bicycle to and from Derry Lodge will help quite a bit. The view from the summit is very good with all the Cairngorm giants looking fine.