The Cairngorms National Park is the largest national park in the United Kingdom, covering 4,528 square kilometres of high plateau, ancient Caledonian forest, and fast-running rivers in the eastern Scottish Highlands. The park takes its name from the Cairngorm mountain range — Am Monadh Ruadh, "the Red Hills" in Gaelic — which forms a high, cold, Arctic-alpine plateau in the park's centre. Ben Macdui, at 1,309 metres, is the second-highest mountain in Britain and the plateau around it sustains plant communities found almost nowhere else in the country at this latitude.
The main access point is Aviemore, a small town on the Spey Valley that has served as the highland sports capital since the ski resort opened on Cairn Gorm in the 1960s. Aviemore has all the practical services — train connections to Inverness and Edinburgh, gear hire, accommodation of every standard — and the feel of a resort town that has had a hard time attracting year-round visitors but is making a reasonable effort. The better experiences are outside it: the Rothiemurchus Forest of ancient Scots pines, the Loch an Eilein castle ruin, and the high plateau itself via the Cairngorm Mountain Railway.
Wildlife is the park's other major attraction. Red squirrels, capercaillie, ospreys, red kites, and reindeer — the last remaining free-ranging herd in Britain — all live here. The Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig has captive populations of species that have vanished from or never reached the wild Scottish landscape: polar bears, wolves, bison. The Speyside Whisky Trail runs through the park's northern edge, where the River Spey and its tributaries provide the pure water that feeds dozens of distilleries.
Winter brings skiing and snowboarding on the Cairn Gorm ski area and some of the most reliable snow in Britain — though reliable is relative, and the season runs roughly December to April with variable conditions. Summer is walking and cycling season, with the Lairig Ghru mountain pass one of the classic routes through the heart of the plateau.