BEN DAIRG. 187 



Such a regiment of Highland men, 



The Duke and Lord Cathcart ; 

 I am convinced they would defy 



The devil and Buonaparte. 



Ben Dairg, or Derig, as it is usually pronounced, the 

 mountain next in consequence to Ben-y-gloe, is 3,550 

 feet in height. It lies about ten miles north from Blair ; 

 its summit is covered with immense blocks of gneiss and 

 granite of a reddish colour, from whence it derives its 

 name of the Red Mountain. This chaos of huge frag- 

 ments is the favourite haunt of the ptarmigan and white 

 hare, though the perilous den of the fox and wild cat is 

 there also, and the eagle preys around it. 



The south side of this mountain forms a vast crescent, 

 the horns lying west and east. 



I must not omit to mention more particularly another 

 mountain which lies between Glen Mark and Glen Croinie : 

 it is called Cuirn-Marnich : cuirn is the plural of cairn, 

 and marnich of maronach : " The cairns of the Braemar 

 people." These cairns are sixteen in number, and were 

 raised by the Atholl men to commemorate a victory they 

 obtained over the Braemar people, whom they here over- 

 took and slew to the number of sixteen, as they were 

 returning home with plunder from their country. Tra- 

 dition says little about this foray, which, indeed, was but 

 upon a small scale. It is a boast of the men of Atholl, 

 that they never were beaten by their neighbours in open 

 fight, such having always proved fatal to their adversaries ; 

 so that the only loss they ever suffered was by stealth and 

 stratagem. 



This they are still proud of. Alexander Gon, from 



