Beinn a' Chaorainn
4 classifications here — Marilyn, HuMP, Simm and Murdo — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 1083.3 m · 3,554 ft
- Prominence
- 246.3 m
- Grid reference
- NJ 04516 01350
- Coordinates
- 57.09326, -3.57743
- County / area
- Aberdeenshire/Moray
- Region
- Cairngorms
- OS Landranger
- 36
- OS Explorer
- OL57S OL58S 403S 404S
- Summit feature
- large cairn
- Key col
- NJ063003 (837 m)
About Beinn a' Chaorainn
Beinn a' Chaorainn stands in the heart of the Cairngorms, on the Moray-Aberdeenshire boundary, roughly 19 km south-east of Aviemore and 14 km north-west of Braemar. It is a fairly remote hill by the standards of the range.
The name was formerly written Beinn a' Chaoruinn; the genitive of caorunn was respelt caorann under the Gaelic Orthographic Convention's standardisation.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Beinn a' Chaorainn (Cairngorms) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.
Access rights here
Yes Right to roam: Statutory right of responsible access to most land and inland water.
Yes Wild camping: Wild camping is broadly lawful under the 2003 Act.
General position for Scotland — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in Scotland · check another location.
Daylight at this summit today
- Sunrise
- —
- Sunset
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- Daylight
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- Civil twilight ends
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Computed astronomically for 57.093, -3.577. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (1083 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
The recorded summit point is large cairn. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.
- Survey method
- Leica RX1250
- Record revised
- 29-Mar-23
- Drop measured from
- NJ063003 · 837 m
Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.
The Beinn a' Chaorainn group
3 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Beinn a' Chaorainn as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Beinn a' Chaorainn Bheag | 1,016 m | 67 m |
| Beinn Bhreac | 930 m | 81 m |
| Beinn Bhreac West Top | 928 m | 21 m |
Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.
Nearest listed peaks
| Peak | Height | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Beinn a' Chaorainn Bheag | 1016 m | 1.3 km |
| Beinn Mheadhoin | 1182.9 m | 2.1 km |
| Stob Coire Etchachan | 1082 m | 2.2 km |
| Sgurr an Lochan Uaine | 982.9 m | 3 km |
| Stacan Dubha | 1014 m | 3.3 km |
| Creag Mhor | 895 m | 3.6 km |