266 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



XXXI. The Altitude of Forest Trees on the Cairngorm 

 Mountains^ By Hugh Boyd Watt, 



In the region of the Cairngorm Mountains is to be found the 

 finest wild forest scenery in the country, in respect both of extent 

 and of natural features. From the hill-slope above Boat of 

 Garten, for instance, the prospect is such as no other district in 

 the country can show. That tine river, the Spey, is immediately 

 below the eyes ; across it are the massed and serried ranks of 

 the pine trees of the forests of Abernethy and Rothiemurchus, 

 extending for miles up and down the river, and stretching up the 

 hills, which culminate in the principal summits of the Cairngorms. 

 This great background, far in the distance, dwarfs by its size and 

 remoteness the woodlands at its base. They seem, in proportion, 

 only dense plantations such as may be seen on any hill-side, and 

 it is perhaps not until the forests are actually visited and passed 

 through that their extent is properly appreciated. 



I do not know that the history of these woodlands has yet been 

 told with any fulness or scientific accuracy, tradition, legend, and 

 imagination — all admirable things in their proper places — having 

 been too much drawn upon. Nor will this side of the subject be 

 taken up here, this paper being limited to some observations, 

 recently made, on the kinds of trees found on the Cairngorms, 

 and particularly as to the altitudes at which they grow. 



It may be said generally that about 1700 feet above sea-level 

 represents the line above which only few or exceptionally situated 

 trees occur, and these only of a very few species. It might be 

 more accurate to say that 1500 feet is the limit; about this 

 height the Abernethy and Rothiemurchus Scots pines die out. 

 In Glen Feshie, and on the Don above Cock Bridge, and in Glen 

 Quoich, the highest pines are also at about 1500 feet. In Glen 

 Dee they stop at about 1300 feet, and in Glen Lui, at Derry 

 Lodge (alt. 1386 feet), there is a detached clump of fair-sized 

 pines. At Braemar, Creag Choinnich (alt. 1764 feet) is wooded 

 nearly to the top, chiefly with Scots pines and larches. The only 

 other tree which attains the heights just named is the birch, 

 which seems better able than the Scots pine to hold its own, and 

 even gain ground. In some ])laces — such as Glen Quoich — the 

 wreck of the pines, blown down and decaying, while not un- 

 picturesque, is in some aspects painful. The fallen pines seem 



' Reprinted from Cairngorm Cluh Journal, January 1903, Aberdeen. 



