Carn Ealasaid

About Carn Ealasaid

Rising above the A939 near the Lecht Ski Centre, this rounded Corbett offers an accessible high-altitude start. The terrain is dominated by heather and estate tracks, leading to a summit plateau with clear sights across the upper Don valley toward the snowy corries of Cairn Gorm and Ben Macdui.

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Did You Know?

• •The name Carn Ealasaid translates from Gaelic as 'Elizabeth’s Cairn'. While the specific Elizabeth remains a mystery, it is a rare example of a Scottish hill named after a woman, possibly a member of the Gordon family who once owned these lands.
• •Starting the walk from the summit of the A939 road at the Well of Lecht means you begin at an elevation of 643 metres, leaving only about 150 metres of ascent to reach the summit of this Corbett.
• •The hill occupies a transition point in the landscape, providing a grandstand view where the rolling, heathery hills of the Glenlivet Estate meet the much harsher, granite high-plateau of the central Cairngorms to the southwest.
• •The summit is marked by a modest cairn situated on a broad, peat-scarred plateau that can be notoriously difficult to navigate in the thick 'clag' that frequently rolls in from the Moray Firth.
• •Because of the high-altitude start, the most physically demanding part of the expedition is frequently the drive up the notorious 1-in-5 gradients of the Cock Bridge to Tomintoul road rather than the walk itself.