Cairngorms

The high plateaux and corries provide some of Scotland's most demanding mountain ground, but outdoor life now takes many forms. Skiing continues at Cairngorm Mountain, while mountain biking has become increasingly important across the National Park, including purpose-built trail centres and downhill facilities. The Braemar Gathering adds a very different kind of outdoor culture, bringing Highland games and large crowds into a village surrounded by the same mountain landscape. The Park is also working country. Farming, forestry, estate management and conservation operate alongside recreation, while paths and access routes have to work for residents, land managers and visitors at the same time. The National Park Authority explicitly describes the Cairngorms as both a visitor destination and a living, working landscape. That tension is part of what makes the Cairngorms interesting now. It is not a protected wilderness sitting outside ordinary Scottish life.