Cairngorm Club Collection

The Victorian era heralded the new sport of climbing and 1887 saw the foundation of the Cairngorm Club. Publications on all aspects of the new popular sport were soon rolling off the press and the Club quickly established a Library for its members. In 1993 the Collection was re-located to Special Libraries and Archives (now the Special Collections Centre), University of Aberdeen. In addition to the Library, the archives of the Cairngorm Club were also deposited. As would be expected, the Collection concentrates on all aspects of mountaineering with special relevance to Scotland. The Club has also issued its own journal, The Cairngorm Club Journal, since 1893 which is full of articles on all aspects of mountaineering as well as more general subjects.

The collection

Although much of the stock dates from the last 20 years or so, the Library does hold some important 19th century topographical books, as with George Robson’s Scenery of the Grampian Mountains (London, 1814), and John Bristed’s Pedestrian Tour through Part of the Highlands of Scotland (London: Wallis, 1803). An early treasure is a copy of Taylor & Skinner’s Survey and Maps of the Roads of North Britain or Scotland (London: D. Wilson & G. Nicol, 1776). Late Victorian and Edwardian mountaineering texts are well represented, and include many prepared by Edward Whymper. The periodical runs include Die Alpen, L’Echo des Alpes, the American Alpine Journal and the Canadian Alpine Journal. The guides and serial publications of the Scottish Mountaineering Club are also present, as are several sequences of the Cairngorm Club Journal itself.