The Cairngorms: A Secret History

A secret history lies on the Cairngorms plateau - a series of barely known human and natural stories which have left hardly any traces on the primordial landscape of Britain's last wilderness.

Patrick Baker has devoted years to rediscovering this history, searching remote mountain crags and finding fascinating relics of the dramas and tragedies of the past. He comes across the high-level shelters of the plateau - the refuges once used by generations of climbers, but now crumbling into obscurity. Elsewhere, he finds the skeletal remains of aircraft debris, an ancient gem mine, an outlaw's hideaway and a mysterious aristocratic settlement. He wanders the hills in search of the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui, geological oddities, and the elusive Scottish wildcat.

The result of his quest is a unique travelogue that explores the human impact of this stunning landscape, the story of the early days of mountaineering in the Cairngorms and the secrets of a past which is stranger than fiction.