The Black Cuillin

Scottish Highlands

North West Highlands

The dramatic, windswept landscapes of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland are among the least populated regions in Britain. The mountains have shaped the culture and traditions of the people who live there.

The Black Cuillin

The Isle of Skye is famous for its beautiful and dramatic scenery, with the Cuillin mountains being the major attraction for many tourists and climbers.

The Cuillin range features 12 Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet). The major peaks of this range are commonly known as the Black Cuillin because of dark colouring of the gabbro rock that forms them. (Gabbro is the coarse-grained equivalent of basalt)

11 of the 12 Skye Munros are found in the same range, with Sgurr Alasdair (Alexander’s Peak in Gaelic) the highest at 3,255 feet.

The brooding and majestic mountains of the central Highlands of Scotland are every bit as rich in history as they are in beauty. From the summit of Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain, to the grandeur of Glen Coe, this region offers some of the finest mountain landscapes of the British Isles.

With a rich Gaelic culture and tradition, there is more to the central Highlands than big hills.

Huskies in the Cairngorms

Sled dog racing is probably more associated with Alaska and mammoth distances of frozen wasteland. The Iditarod is the premier Alaskan endurance event, where teams of dogs and their owners race over a course that is over 1,500 miles long.

The Cairngorm range of mountains might not be on the same scale but it is perfect territory for sled dogs.

The dogs found in the region are usually Alaskan huskies. Their amazing strength, hardiness and endurance make them an ideal choice for the terrain of the Cairngorms.

The connection between Scotland and sled dog racing isn’t quite as bizarre as it first seems. The first races may have been in Alaska but they were started by a Scotsman!

Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis is located just outside Fort William. Rising 4,406 feet from sea level, its presence dominates the town.

In Gaelic the mountain is called Beinn Nibheis. A translation of Nibheis would be "terrible". It has also been claimed that this is a mistranslation, and that rather than "Terrible Mountain" its true name should be "Cloud Mountain".

In truth both could equally be applied. The weather conditions on and around the mountain can change within minutes, catching many climbers unaware.

Locally, the claim is made that climbers who haul themselves the 4,000 odd feet to the summit only have a one-in-three chance of seeing any kind of view thanks to the shroud of mist that often covers the top of the mountain.

The one-in-three climbers who have seen the view swear that it is worth the effort of the climb!

The Scottish Highlands include the rugged and mountainous regions of Scotland north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Highlands are popularly described as one of the most scenic regions of Europe.

A Highland Council sign on the boundary of the Highland council area implying, controversially, that the boundary is also that of the Scottish Highlands

WHY ARE THE HIGHLANDS SPARSELY POPULATED?

The area is generally sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. Before the 19th century however the Highlands was home to a much larger population, but due to a combination of factors including the outlawing of the traditional Highland way of life following the Second Jacobite Rising, the infamous Highland Clearances, and mass migration to urban areas during the Industrial Revolution, the area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. The average population density in the Highlands and Islands is lower than that of Sweden, Norway, Papua New Guinea and Argentina.

Highlands, July 2007

The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Scottish Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, Perth and Kinross, and Stirling. Although the Isle of Arran administratively belongs to North Ayrshire, its northern part is generally regarded as part of the Highlands.

The Quirang, Trotternish peninsula,

on the Island of Skye

The Scottish Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the north west are up to 3,000 million years old and amongst the oldest found anywhere on Earth. These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and Skye Cuillin. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstones found principally along the Moray Firth coast. The Great Glen is a rift valley which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. [4][5]

The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-23