This article/blog post was written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost, published on the 16th of March 2026. This article/blog post is unrelated to and separate from any and all of my other publications. The two photos were also taken by myself the author. No AI was used in this publication. This blog post was published in the UK, on this UK website and I the author am from the UK and am a resident of the UK. This article/blog post contains 1418 words. The photo descriptions contain information not in the main text, the photos have also not been published before being in this article/blog post. Note that I have discussed the Gaelic dialects of the Cairngorms region in a lot of detail in other publications as well as having published elsewhere other information not present in this new blog post about the archaeology and languages there. Note I published yesterday on another website an article concerning the Pabbay Pictish stone and other topics relating to language and folklore on the Barra Isles, and later today I will also publish another different blog post on this website you are currently on which will pertain to County Durham, suphur, romance, and wyrms (not the wyrms mentioned in this article on this page).
For whatever reason, when I was 17 and in the Cairngorms, looking over landscapes of forests, lakes and mountains, somewhat illuminated by a form of the midnight sun, I thought of the Elvish languages as created by J.R.R. Tolkien, in particular, the Quenya Elvish language. I suppose that the Cairngorms do "feel" like Finland, or Northern Scandinavia, with Finnish having in-part inspired Quenya. The landscape of the Cairngorms reminds me of parts of Northern Europe, and of parts of North America. It forms a part of that primordial landscape of pine and mountain and ancient memory - which our Earth has been home to for so very long.
The indigenous people of the Cairngorms are also a somewhat mysterious people to me. The people we historically identify as being Pictish lived not far to the east, but I would not say personally that what we consider to be Pictish language and culture (including various expressions of Pictish "language") seem to have reached the heartland of the Cairngorms. The Gaelic dialects of the Cairngorms also make a language that is similar in many respects to other eastern mainland Gaelic dialects, but which also extravagates some of these features, and which contains its own unique features. I would reckon that the original older linguistic influences of this region were quite different to those in Western Scotland and even in Pictland for example. The evidence of Mesolithic peoples in the Cairngorms, at sites such as Caochanan Ruadha also might indicate that the ancient Mesolithic ancestors of this region, would probably have lived a very different lifestyle from those on the east and west coasts for example, who I have discussed more elsewhere.
Reindeer have been re-introduced to the Cairngorms, but also lived there, and elsewhere in Scotland, not so long ago. The presence of reindeer in this landscape, in present times, and historically, also give further example to how the Cairngorms' landscapes are similar to those of Northern Europe in many respects, and it is possible for example, that indigenous people in this region could have kept a lifestyle quite akin to that of the Sámi until more recent times. Although the precise identity of these people is unknown.
Photo below: a view of the Cairngorm Mountains taken in late summer 2010, could this upland, Lapland-like landscape have been home to specific cultures until quite recently, cultures existing within or even somewhat apart from Gaelic speaking culture?
There is certainly suggestion of a large amount of mythology in this region involving the Daoine Sidhe. There is also the Kelpie's Stane in Corgarff, which indicates that kelpies were known in this region. There is also a possible sasquatch connection to this region, with Am Fear Liath Mór, a being in some ways described as akin to a sasquatch, with Am Fear Liath Mór being said to walk on Ben Macdui/Beinn MacDuibh during the mist. The connections between such ancestor beings and the Mesolithic peoples are also striking. In some senses, we don't really know who all of the Mesolithic peoples were. Sadly, the Kelpie's Stane in Corgarff may have been destroyed by forestry operations, which would be incredibly sad if this is so. I feel that perhaps a group of people, myself included, could do some hiking in the Cairngorms and help to identify some of the other sites, although this may not be easy. In the legend of the Kelpie Stane, the kelpie in question takes the form of a man and then tries to capture another man, which is unusual in a kelpie story, does this perhaps represent a local variant of them? The kelpie then throws a stone at the man, which is the Kelpie Stane.
Kelpies as beings also deeply fascinate me, and I feel a sort of connection to them - even if I am keenly aware that they are also dangerous beings, although some ancestral groups had a very positive relationship with them I believe. I have discussed elsewhere this whole subject of how these beings merge with that of many other beings known across many cultures, and I feel in many senses that some of them were thought of as having once been humanoid, but having transformed into these beings. Their association with the ancestors also I think implies this in a sense. I remember reading a book once where it was implied that the wyrms and similar beings were in some senses, aspects of the most ancient ancestors, having transformed, although many might think of this transformation as a negative oe, although I am inclined to think it is not by its nature evil or negative - but is probably not good for humans. Note that I mention other aspects to wyrms in the other unrelated article I will publish later today, and have discussed other aspects a lot in other publications.
Photo below: a typical dense wooded area in the Cairngorms, showing some beautiful pine forest. I personally can easily see how a sasquatch-like being might live in this forest, which like those of the Pacific Northwest is moist, misty and has many evergreen tree species. These sasquatch beings should be deeply respected, especially as some are said to be hostile towards people, which is not to say that we should not treat them with kindness and respect - we should, but we also need to be wary.
Although the features of the Cairngorms' Gaelic dialects are striking and unique, it is difficult to precisely understand what the most ancient language of this region would have been like. It is also interesting that some glaciers may even have returned to the Cairngorms region up until the 17th century at least, although there also appears to be some doubt about these glaciers, and I myself am not completely convinced that glaciers were in the Cairngorms so recently. Those few who lived in these uplands regions in relatively recent history, are still I think very mysterious in terms of their precise identity and language. I wonder also if there were a lot of Indigenous Highland Travellers in the Cairngorms region in the past, although to my knowledge the Highland Travellers seem to have been perhaps more present on the northern mainland and to an extent on Lewis, and elsewhere, too. I have discussed the Indigenous Highland Travellers and their ancient language in other publications in more detail.
I have elsewhere discussed some of the archaeological sites as well as a fair bit about the Gaelic dialects in this region. There are more-typical archaeological sites known in the peripheral regions of the Cairngorms, including for example a souterrain I have discussed with photos in another publication, but I think that most of the sacred Mesolithic sites in the mountains themselves have simply not been identified yet, and I think this may be because they might bare more similarity to the Sámi sieidi sites than they do to the types of megalithic sites generally identified elsewhere in Scotland.
I hope that this article was an interesting read, it is dedicated to my family, my animals, and to the ancestors and guardians of the Cairngorms.
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