Braeriach
5 classifications here — Trail 100, 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
- 1296 m · 4,252 ft
- Prominence
- 461 m
- Grid reference
- NN 95329 99906
- Coordinates
- 57.07830, -3.72837
- County / area
- Aberdeenshire/Highland
- Region
- Cairngorms
- OS Landranger
- 36 43
- OS Explorer
- OL57S 403S
- Summit feature
- rock c 20m NE of cairn
- Key col
- NH973013 (835 m)
About Braeriach
Third-highest in Scotland and the British Isles behind Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui, Braeriach is the top of the western massif of the Cairngorms, cut off from the central section by the Lairig Ghru. Its Gaelic name, Am Bràigh Riabhach, means 'the brindled upland'.
The summit itself is a crescent of plateau curving above a series of corries. The route most often used begins at the Sugar Bowl car park on the Cairn Gorm ski road, passes through the rocky defile of the Chalamain Gap, drops about 100 metres to the Lairig Ghru and then follows the north ridge over the subsidiary top of Sròn na Lairige — around 10.5 km to the summit.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Braeriach (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
- —
- Daylight
- —
- Civil twilight ends
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Computed astronomically for 57.078, -3.728. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (1296 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
top of rock is level with half way up the cairn. Rock 30 E of cairn is just lower. Rock 10 S of cairn at cliff edge is about the same height.
The recorded summit point is rock c 20m NE of cairn. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.
- Survey method
- Abney level
- Record revised
- 05-Jan-20
- Drop measured from
- NH973013 · 835 m
Classification history: Added to Trail 100 list Jan 2020.
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 Braeriach group
3 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Braeriach as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Carn na Criche | 1,265 m | 50 m |
| Sron na Lairige | 1,184 m | 50 m |
| Tom Dubh | 920 m | 40 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sron na Lairige | 1184 m | 1.3 km |
| Carn na Criche | 1265 m | 2.2 km |
| Sgor an Lochain Uaine | 1258 m | 2.2 km |
| Cairn Toul | 1291 m | 2.9 km |
| Ben Macdui | 1309.3 m | 3.7 km |
| Stob Coire an t-Saighdeir | 1213 m | 3.7 km |