Aviemore and the Cairngorms National Park Hotels @ Room4U

The Cairngorms and Cairngorms National Park, the magical mountainous region in the Eastern Scottish Highlands, make up the United Kingdom’s largest national park, a large elevated plateau festooned with low, rounded glacial mountains. The scenery is spectacular, the wildlife thrilling and the skiing an absolute must.

The Cairngorms are named after Cairn Gorm (Blue Cairn in the Scottish Gaelic language), the most prominent of the hills as seen from Strathspey. This name contrasts with the original Gaelic name for the mountains - Am Monadh Ruadh, meaning the Red Hills. The Cairngorms feature the highest, coldest and snowiest plateaux in the British Isles and is home to four of the five highest mountains and Munros in Scotland, Ben Macdhui (1309 m), Cairn Gorm (1245 m), Braeriach (1296 m), Cairn Toul (1293 m). A further 13 munros exist elsewhere in Scotland.

Popular with walkers, hikers, climbers, skiers, birdspotters, botanists, archaelogists, geologists and those just there for the pure thrill of the snow-capped mountains, the highest of which remain so well into August – although the ski-season officially runs at Cairngorm from January-April.

Hotels in Aviemore (Nethy Bridge)
Hotels in Boat Of Garten
Hotels in Carrbridge
Hotels in Newtonmore
Hotels in Grantown on Spey
Hotels in Dalwhinnie

In addition to the skiing, the Cairngorm National Park is famous for its wildlife, weakly provided for by a unique alpine semi-tundra. Bird species in the Cairngorms include Ptarmigan, Dotterel, Snow Bunting, Golden Eagle, Twite and Red Grouse, Snowy Owl, Purple Sandpiper and Lapland Bunting. The arctic hare is also known to frequent the rolling highland moorlands. In the forests, Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Scottish Crossbill, Parrot Crossbill, Crested Tit can be found.

A skiing and winter sports industry is concentrated in the Cairngorms, with a range of hotels situated in the clear, chill valley below in the town of Aviemore – a small but well equipped resort bustling with hikers and skiers and marvellously supported by an eclectic and hugely satisfying variety of shops and restaurants. If you’re looking for a little lively – but still in keeping with the wild, open character of the area, then Aviemore is the resort of choice. The beautifully old-fashioned steam railway station in the centre is worth the price of a ticket alone. make sure you look at the timetable for the regular scene taking journeys to and from Nethy Bridge Boat Of Garten and Grantown on Spey

Three of Scotland's five resorts situated here. They are the Cairn Gorm Ski Centre, Glenshee Ski Centre and The Lecht Ski Centre.

A funicular railway opened here in late 2001, running from a base station at 637 metres up to the Ptarmigan Centre, situated at 1097 metres, 150 metres from the summit of Cairn Gorm.

Highlands and attractions in the area include: Cairngorm Mountain, Ben Macdui, Cairn Gorm Ski Centre, Loch Morlich, Strathspey Steam Railway, Loch Garten Osprey Centre and the Highland Native Wildlife Park.