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The Cairngorm Mountains

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

Royaume-Uni de Grande Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord (Europe et Amérique du nord)
Date de soumission : 21/06/1999
Critères: (vii)(viii)(ix)
Catégorie : Naturel
Soumis par : Dep. For Culture, Media and Sport Buildings, Monuments and Sites
Coordonnées Long. 3°38'08" W / Lat. 57°06'45" N The Highlands, Scotland
Ref.: 1322

Description

The Cairngorm Mountains comprise the largest continuous area of high ground above 1,000m in Britain and include most of the highest summits in Scotland. These mountains, with their distinctive plateau surfaces and glacially sculptured features, are surrounded by open moorland and glens. The climate reflects a unique combination of oceanic and continental influences, characterised by wet and windy conditions, rather than extreme cold. The diversity of landforms present in the Cairngorms provides exceptional insights into long-term processes of mountain landscape evolution and environmental change in a maritime, mid-latitude setting in the northern hemisphere. This geomorphological development spans the latter part of the Tertiary period with its warm humid climate, through the ice ages of the last 2.5 million years, to the present day. Relict landforms which originated before the ice age are unusual for their scale of development in a glaciated mountain area; they include tors, weathered bedrock and plateau surfaces. These features stand in sharp contrast with glacial cliffs, corries and deeply dissected glens. Together they form an outstanding example of a landscape of selective glacial erosion and show how the erosional effects of the ice age glaciers were focused in particular areas and minimal in others. Such a landscape is exceptional in western Europe and is comparable with parts of Bafffin Island. The adjacent glens support a diverse assemblage of glacial meltwater features and glacial deposits, notably channels, eskers, kames, kettle holes, terraces, lake deposits and moraines. On the northern flanks of the Cairngorms there is evidence for active recession of the last ice sheet, while several corries contain excellent examples of moraines formed during the final glacial phase. Periglacial landforms, illustrating the effects of cold climate conditions on the bedrock and soil, are extensively developed on the high slopes and plateau surfaces and add further to the landform diversity, as do several rock slope failures, some associated with fossil rock glaciers. A variety of slope landforms, river terraces and gravel-bed rivers reveal the pattern of postglacial changes. The history of climate and change and vegetation development during the final part of the ice age and in the subsequent postglacial period is contained in the records of plant remains and pollen grains preserved in lochs and peat bogs. The montane zone is also notable for the links between geomorphological processes, soils and vegetation patterns and their sensitivity to contemporary environmental change. The occurrence of such a diverse assemblage of features in a relatively compact area is exceptional on an international level.