The Monadhliath Mountains , or Monadh Liath, are a range of mountains in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Monadh Liath is

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

, and means "grey mountain range". Running in a northeast to southwest direction, it lies on the western side of Strathspey, to the west of the Cairngorms and to the south east of Loch Ness. Its southwestern limit is usually taken to be

Corrieyairack Pass The Corrieyairack Pass ( Scottish Gaelic – ''Màm Choire Ghearraig'') is a 770 m (2526 ft) high pass in the Scottish Highlands at . It is notable for the presence of one of General Wade's military roads, built at the time of the ...

(763m) but similar uplands continue to Glen Roy and Spean Bridge. The range is within the

Highland council area Highland ( gd, A' Ghàidhealtachd, ; sco, Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It shar ...

, and the south and east fringes are within the

Cairngorms National Park Cairngorms National Park ( gd, Pàirc Nàiseanta a' Mhonaidh Ruaidh) is a national park in northeast Scotland, established in 2003. It was the second of two national parks established by the Scottish Parliament, after Loch Lomond and The Tros ...

. The high point of the range is Càrn Dearg, at , located south of

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...

. This is one of four

Munro A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nev ...

s in the Monadhliath, the others being A'Chailleach (), Geal Chàrn (), and Càrn Sgulain (). The Monadhliath Mountains are designated a

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...

(SAC). The Monadh Liath differs greatly in character from the greater Highland mountains to the south and west, as an elevated moorland with no proper ridges. The four Munros are all on the Spey rim, three making a classic circuit from Newtonmore; the interior is rarely visited. The main valley within the Monadh Liath is the Findhorn. It is unusually sinuous, being an incised meandering river valley very little altered by glaciers. The landscape of the Monadh Liath is one of the most ancient in Britain, its essentials as a secondary massif flanking the Cairngorms having evolved continuously since the Caledonian Mountains were created over 400 million years ago. Thus the land surface still slopes gently northwest towards the

Great Glen The Great Glen ( gd, An Gleann Mòr ), also known as Glen Albyn (from the Gaelic "Glen of Scotland" ) or Glen More (from the Gaelic ), is a glen in Scotland running for from Inverness on the edge of Moray Firth, in an approximately straight ...

, away from the main Grampian divide which crosses the Cairngorms. Although icesheets have repeatedly covered the Monadh Liath, they have done little to change its character: there are no corries away from the Munros fringe, and only a few short glaciated troughs, notably Glen Killin on the north. It has just become recognised that thin ice on the plateau is frozen to the ground, but as it starts to flow into the troughs it thickens, accelerates, and warms up so it can erode and enlarge them. This has occurred as recently as the last (Younger Dryas) glacial period ~12000 years ago.Clare Boston, Sven Lukas, Simon Carr 2015. A Younger Dryas plateau icefield in the Monadhliath, Scotland, and implications for regional palaeoclimate. Quaternary Science Reviews 108, 139-162 Until the last few years, the Monadh Liath interior was remote and desolate, a naturally treeless and largely trackless wilderness, one of the last large tracts of 'wild land' in human terms at least, known only to a few deer and grouse enthusiasts. The renewable energy gold rush has already led to the Glendoe hydro-electric scheme above Fort Augustus. The actual reservoir and dam are not unduly intrusive, but the extensive network of heavy-duty access roads to service all the weirs diverting water into the catchment have altered its remoteness and wildness. These roads have also facilitated a very large wind energy project, one of several encouraged by proximity to the high-capacity Beauly-Denny power transmission line over Corrieyairack Pass, and which now dominate the NW Grampian skyline in views from the Cairngorms and Western Highlands up to away.

References

{{coord, 57, 10, N, 4, 00, W, display=title, region:GB_type:mountain_source:GNS-enwiki Mountains and hills of Highland (council area) Mountain ranges of Scotland