The Devil's Point
The Devil's Point is a dramatic mountain summit in the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands, rising to 1,004 metres (3,294 feet) above sea level. It forms part of the celebrated Cairngorms plateau, one of the most expansive high-altitude landscapes in the British Isles. The mountain is a Munro, meaning it surpasses the 3,000-foot threshold that draws hill walkers and mountaineers from across the world to collect such summits. Despite being overshadowed in fame by its neighbours Cairn Toul and Braeriach, The Devil's Point possesses a savage, wild grandeur all its own, and the climb to its summit offers some of the most exhilarating high mountain scenery in Scotland.
The name itself carries a colourful history rooted in Victorian propriety. The peak's original Gaelic name is Bod an Deamhain, which translates rather bluntly as "the Devil's Penis." When Queen Victoria was touring the Cairngorms in the mid-nineteenth century, her ghillie John Brown — or according to some tellings, another local guide — was asked to translate the name. Unwilling to render the true meaning in front of the monarch, he offered the sanitised substitute "the Devil's Point," and the euphemism has endured ever since. The story perfectly captures the way Victorian sensibilities sometimes filtered the raw, earthy language of Gaelic topography into something more publicly acceptable, though the original name is still well known to Gaelic speakers and those familiar with the mountain's folklore.
In physical terms, The Devil's Point presents itself as a steep, rocky pyramid rising at the southern end of the Lairig Ghru, the ancient pass that bisects the central Cairngorms. The summit plateau is ringed with crags and boulder fields, and the approach from the south involves crossing the River Dee at a ford — often a memorably cold affair — before ascending the long southern flank. From the top, the views are panoramic and breathtaking: the deep trench of the Lairig Ghru cuts northward towards Rothiemurchus, Cairn Toul looms directly to the north-west, and on a clear day the eye can travel across miles of rolling plateau wilderness. The summit feels genuinely remote, a place where the wind cuts hard and the silence, broken only by the call of ptarmigan or the rush of distant waterfalls, is profound.
The surrounding landscape is the heart of the Cairngorms wilderness, a vast and largely roadless expanse of sub-arctic moorland, ancient Caledonian pinewoods, and glacier-sculpted glens. The Lairig Ghru pass to the north-east is one of Scotland's great mountain journeys. The River Dee rises on the nearby plateau of Braeriach and gathers pace through the glen below. Glen Dee stretches southward toward the Linn of Dee and Braemar, providing the main walking approach. The area supports rare wildlife including reindeer (reintroduced on the northern Cairngorms), golden eagles, ospreys, red squirrels, and wildcat. The Cairngorms National Park, the largest national park in the United Kingdom, provides the protective designation for this entire landscape.
The most common approach to The Devil's Point begins at the Linn of Dee car park near Braemar, roughly six miles west of the town itself. From there a track leads through Glen Dee, passing the ruins of Chest of Dee and the White Bridge, before heading north into the heart of the massif. The round trip is approximately 20 to 25 kilometres with around 900 metres of ascent, making it a serious full-day undertaking suited to experienced hillwalkers with appropriate navigation skills, clothing, and footwear. The River Dee crossing can be impassable in spate, and conditions on the high plateau change rapidly and without warning in any season. Winter ascents require full mountaineering competence, ice axe, and crampons.
The best time to visit is between late May and September, when the days are long, the higher paths are generally snow-free, and the flora of the plateau — including trailing azalea, woolly hair moss, and cloudberry — is at its most vivid. Even in summer the summit can be subject to cloud, wind, and near-freezing temperatures, and walkers should always carry a full set of waterproofs and layers. The nearest services and accommodation are in Braemar, which has a small range of hotels, hostels, and shops. There is also the remote Corrour Bothy, maintained by the Mountain Bothies Association, nestled at the base of The Devil's Point at the confluence of the Dee and the Geusachan Burn — an atmospheric and much-loved shelter that allows those who wish to extend their journey to sleep within sight of the summit.