Language Notes

Element Meaning

G monadh ~ moor, heathland; ruadh ~ ruddy, brown/red

Sources

Cairngorm (4084) is the highest point in our parish, and is one of the best known of our Highland hills. The old name was “Monadh ruadh,” red or ruddy, in contradistinction to the ” Monadh-liath,” grey, on the north side of the Spey.: Shadow of the Cairngorm, 24

“the Monadh Ruadh — i.e, the Red Mountains, — which was a term coramonly applied to the range of hills extending on the opposite side of the valley of the Spey, from that occupied by the Monadh Liath, or Grey Mountains.” Sinton, 1904, 3

“Am Monadh Ruadh is ‘the red mountain range’, now the Cairngorms”: Watson 1926, 406

“Cairngorm: carn gorm; the collective name “ Cairngorms ” for the whole group of hills is purely English, having become used by visitors in the nineteenth century; the old Braemar people said they had no collective name for these hills; on the other hand the Strathspey people called them the Monadh Ruadh: monna-roo-a (red mount); this term, a good descriptive one when these hills are looked at from the west side, is now practically extinct, but I have met an old Strathspey man, as recently as 1942, to whom it was quite familiar.” Alexander, W. M. Some Name-pronunciations, Cairngorm Journal, 1946

Additional Information

For the peak Carn Gorm itself, see here.

Alternative Forms