Eastern Grampian Mountains

The eastern Grampian Mountains are considered here as the highland areas to the east of the Tay-Tummel-Truim-Spey through valley (Figure 91). This valley separates the western mountain areas, characterized by intense glacial erosion, and the eastern mountain plateau country, where glacial erosion has produced only specific features superimposed on an easily recognizable pre-existing landscape. There are three principal mountain groups in this area, the Gaick Plateau, the Cairngorms and the south-east Grampians around Lochnagar. Each of these is characterized by high-level plateau surfaces, which are most impressively developed in the Cairngorms. These surfaces are widely acknowledged as having formed prior to glaciation (Fleet, 1938; Iinton, 1949b, 1959; Sissons, 1967a; Sugden, 1968; Hall, 1983) and carry apparently relict pre-glacial features, such as tors (Iinton, 1950a, 1955) and decomposed bedrock (Barrow et al., 1913; Sugden, 1968; Hall and Mellor, 1988).