Busy writing up a blog of my crossing and part of that process is to research the meanings of some of the names I encounter. It has more value to me once I've been there.
Hence we come to Lochnagar with it's two 'peaks'
I came across a gold mine of archived journals from The Cairngorm Club , with a piece in a 1946 journal about the names of the Lochnagar region.
http://www.cairngormclub.org.uk/journals/PDFs/Articles/J085/The%20Cairngorm%20Club%20Journal%20085%20-%20The%20Place-names%20on%20and%20around%20Lochnagar%20WM.pdf

The author believed the summit to be Ca Carn (OS: Cac Carn Mor) and urges the reader to use the correct Gaelic word of Ca instead of the meaningless Cac (all the a have the missing grave accent btw) Else where more recent wikis declare it does have a meaning.
It also implies that the current motor peak was the true summit.

Anybody here have other insights?

Thanks

Andy

Andy,

Cac is a more interesting reference than you think. It's certainly not meaningless and it's derivation has been the cause of a lot of schoolboy humour over the years. Your source is quite correct to state that the name is wrong but in truth it wouldn't have surprised me had it been correct, as the old Gaels were known for many earthy references. The date of these Cairngorm Journals is far enough in the past that I suspect that they would have been reluctant to dig too deeply and thus exposing their prudishness.

The source which you want is the excellent SMC publication, Scottish Hill Names, by Peter Drummond, an expensive but comprehensive and essential fount of knowledge. I quote, "In addition to the two paps, the summits of the massif include the highest points Cac Carn Beag (properly Cadha Carn Beag) and Cac Carn Mor (properly Cadha Carn Mor), which are mistaken names on two counts. The Beag (wee cairn) is in fact six metres higher than the Mor (big cairn). More seriously, the Cac is a corruption of Cadha, meaning slope, or path on a slope; Cac in Gaelic is connected with the Scots keech, known to the English as faeces. Hardly the sort of name, however mistaken, to set before a queen, especially Victoria, which is perhaps why the Balmoral royals were keen to encourage the name Lochnagar!"

That tells you all, possibly more, than you wanted to know.

I recommend the book very highly. It's answered a lot of my queries in past years.

Hope that helps.

Colin

Colin, I guessed you'd have skinny on such things. Thanks so much for replying and the reference.