Ben Macdui

Ben Macdui (1,309m) is the second-highest mountain in Scotland and all of the British Isles, after Ben Nevis. It sits at the heart of the Cairngorm plateau and is reached most directly from the Linn of Dee in the south via Glen Luibeg, or from Cairn Gorm in the north — both routes are long mountain days of 20 kilometres or more. The summit plateau is genuinely remote: it takes hours to reach from any roadhead, and the Arctic-alpine environment at the top is unforgiving in bad weather.

On a clear day, the views are among the finest in Scotland: north to Cairn Gorm and the Moray Firth, south into the Angus glens, west across a rolling sea of summits. The plateau around the summit supports ptarmigan, mountain hares, and dotterel — species at their southern range limits in Scotland. The descent via Coire an t-Sneachda or the Lairig Ghru makes for a satisfying circuit.

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A story
Ben Macdui is said to be haunted by Am Fear Liath Mòr — the Big Grey Man — a tall shadowy figure that follows solitary walkers in mist near the summit. The legend gained traction in 1925 when the eminent physicist J. Norman Collie admitted to a terrifying encounter on the summit in 1891, and several reliable witnesses have reported similar experiences since. Scientists attribute it to the Brocken Spectre effect — the walker's own shadow magnified by fog — but the plateau has a way of making rationalism feel insufficient.