The Lairig Ghru, The Cairngorms, Scotland

The Lairig Ghru

This picture of The Lairig Ghru is for sale.

It comes as a canvas (from £50.00), or an unframed print (from £1.20).

Why not take a look at my other pictures of the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

Looking out across Rothiemurchus Forest to the Lairig Ghru, a 27 mile long mountain pass through the Cairngorms, in the eastern Scottish Highlands.

Lairig is Gaelic for a hill pass, but the source of the Ghru part of the name is unknown, although it probably derives from the Allt Dhru, a burn that drains north from the pass. It has also been speculated that the pass was originally known as the Lairig Ruadh, meaning "The Red Pass". This fits neatly with the Gaelic name for the Cairngorms, "Am Monadh Ruadh", meaning "The Red Hills". The granite screes of the Lairig Ghru do indeed glow red when illuminated by the evening sunlight.

Historically, the pass was used as a droving route from around the middle of the eighteenth century, and each spring the men from nearby Rothiemurchus would clear the track of rocks that had fallen on to it during the winter.

Long before it became a droving road, the Lairig Ghru was used by travellers between Strathspey and Deeside. After the droving trade ceased towards the end of the nineteenth century, it became a popular walking route.