XXVIII.—Schist Geology: Braemar, Glen Clunie, and Glen Shee

Abstract

The district shown on the plate at the end of this paper belongs to an elevated portion of the much-dissected tableland known as the Highlands of Scotland. It stretches from the eastward-draining Dee to the southward-draining Shee and Isla. The watersheds between these three rivers determine the county boundaries of Aberdeen in the north, and Perth and Forfar in the south-west and south-east. They often rise well above 3000 feet, and where they meet in Glas Maol (I of Plate) they attain to 3502 feet. In the valley bottoms, Braemar on the Dee and the Spittal of Glen Shee both stand a little above the 1000-foot level. A connecting road, with a famous hairpin bend known as the Devil's Elbow (J), passes the Aberdeenshire frontier half a mile east of the Cairnwell at a height of 2199 feet. Its course furnishes an ideal geological traverse of the district considered as a whole.