This secret history of the Cairngorms is a series of journeys exploring little-known stories of the Cairngorm Mountains. History combines with travelogue in a vivid account of this elemental scenery— a unique British landscape and its last great wilderness. There have been rare human incursions into the Cairngorm plateau, and Patrick Baker tracks them down. He traces elusive wildlife and relives ghostly sightings on the summit of Ben Macdui. From the search for a long-forgotten climbing shelter and the locating of ancient gem mines, to the discovery of skeletal aircraft remains and the hunt for a mysterious 19th-century aristocratic settlement, he seeks out the unlikeliest and most interesting of features in places far off the beaten track.