Ben Macdui is the second highest mountain in Scotland after Ben Nevis, and the highest in the Cairngorms National Park. The summit elevation is 1,309 meters AMSL. Ben Macdui lies on the southern edge of the Cairn Gorm plateau, on the boundary between the historic counties of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire. After the defeat of Domnall mac Uilliam in 1187, Donnchad II, Earl of Fife, acquired Strathavon, a territory stretching from Ballindalloch to Ben Macdui. Because the mountain marked the western boundary of Donnchad's territory, Gaelic scholar historian F.C. Diack and place-name scholar Professor G.W.S. Barrow have suggested that the mountain took its name from Donnchad's family, the Mac Duibh, however the name may derive from the Gaelic for a black pig, muc dhubh. Probably the easiest route of ascent is from the Coire Cas car park at the foot of Cairngorm Ski Centre by a path that leads up over slowly rising moorland. This route is about 7 km long; a somewhat longer route allows one also to climb Cairn Gorm. One possible alternative route follows the path coming up from Loch Etchachan. This loch may be reached from Loch Avon to the north or by coming up from Glen Derry to the south. Other routes include coming over Derry Cairngorm, or via the Lairig Ghru pass, which lies to the west of Ben Macdui. Nearly all these routes are long days by Scottish standards. When coming from the south it is common to use a bicycle to cover the 5 km from the road end at Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge at the southern end of the massif. Before the production of accurate maps of Scotland in the 19th century it was not known for certain that Ben Nevis was the highest point in Britain, and it was often thought that Ben Macdui might be the higher. Following surveys of both peaks in 1846-7, Ben Nevis was confirmed as the higher. Following these surveys, there were plans to build a cairn on the top of Ben Macdui to make its height greater than Ben Nevis, but these plans did not come to fruition. The summit of the mountain has a direction indicator erected in 1925 by the Cairngorm Club of Aberdeen in memory of a past president, Mr Alexander Copland. The indicator shows the directions of the most noteworthy mountains that can be seen from the summit in clear weather. Snow patches have been known to persist at various locations on Ben Macdui, most notably Garbh Uisge Beag. Queen Victoria hiked to the summit on 7 October 1859, aged forty. About her experience, she wrote: "It had a sublime and solemn effect, so wild, so solitary – no one but ourselves and our little party there ... I had a little whisky and water, as the people declared pure water would be too chilling." The area of Ben Macdui is said to be haunted by the legendary Am Fear Liath Mòr, or Greyman.
