Photograph by Roger Antrobus, Corbis Date Established: 2003
Size: 1,748 square miles (4,528 square kilometers) Did You Know?
• Great Britain Goliath Cairngorms National Park is the largest
in all of Great Britain. It is twice the size of the Lake
District or Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. • Highlands
Cairngorms is a high country park. Not only are four of
Scotland’s five highest peaks in the park but more than a third
of its total area is above 2,625 feet (800 meters). The lands
above 1,970 feet (600 meters) are part of an ecologically
“Arctic” wilderness habitat filled with representative plant
species. • Long Human History The park is rich with reminders of
human history, including prehistoric burial mounds and stone
circle remnants that date back nearly 6,000 years. From the 10th
to the 18th centuries the clan system held sway in these lands
and some of that era’s forts and castles still stand. The
Victorian period brought nature-loving tourists, recreational
endeavors like the Strathspey Steam Railway, an