The Boys' Brigade Mountaineering Club

Braeriach is the 3rd highest peak in the British Isles and the highest in the western massif of the Cairngorms. It has a crescent-shaped summit overlooking four spectacular corries. It is usually approached from the Sugar Bowl car park on the road to the Cairngorm Mountain ski resort. The route passes through the Chalamain Gap (which is filled with a large number of massive boulders), down to the deep steep-sided Lairig Ghru pass, followed by a long haul up to the summit via its east ridge. This makes for a long day.

See its entries on Walkhighlands or Wikipedia< or view it from above on Google Earth.

Braeriach is a phonetic anglicisiation of the Gaelic pronunciation of Am Bràigh Riabhach where the definite article (Am) has been dropped (as it has in the Gaelic version of the name on Ordnance Survey maps). A suggestion that the name could have been derived from Old Norse has been discounted as the mountain is so far inland and distant from any other Norse names.

Bràigh can mean Upland, Upper Part, Top or Summit, and in this context, Summit might be the best translation. The most common translation of the noun in Braeriach is Upland. Riabhach is an adjective translated as Brindled or Speckled, but could also be translated as Spotted, Mottled, Streaked or Patchy-coloured. It could, as suggested by Peter Drummond (in Scottish Hill Names: Their Origin and Meaning), have got this name from "the patchy pattern of hardy dwarf arctic vegetation that struggles to survive in the harsh conditions amongst the granite gravel spreads on the plateau". So, Am Bràigh Riabhach, could best be translated as The Patchy-coloured Upland.