The earliest historical records for Creag Meagaidh are from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when the area was farmed by tenants who grew crops on the lower slopes and grazed cattle on the higher ground during the summer. Following the
Jacobite rising of 1745 the then owner,
Ewen MacPherson of Cluny, was deprived of his estate, which was then managed on behalf of the Crown by the Commissioners for Forfeited Estates. The commission began the process of
evicting the tenants and consolidating the holdings into a single sheep farm, and by 1790 there were around 20,000 sheep in the parish of Laggan. In 1784 Creag Meagaidh was restored to the Macpherson family. The first recorded ascent of Creag Meagaidh is thought to have been made in 1786 by Thomas Thornton, who described the view from the summit in his book, "Sporting Tour". By the early twentieth century the estate was being managed for sporting interests (
deer stalking,
fishing and
grouse shooting), alongside sheep farming and forestry. The construction of the
Laggan Dam (completed 1934) as part of the
Lochaber hydroelectric scheme led to a reduction in the amount of grazing land in the area, causing an increase in deer numbers at Creag Meagaidh. By the 1970s sheep farming had largely ceased, and deer stalking had become the main activity on the estate. In 1983 the estate was sold to Fountain Forestry, who proposed to plant much of the area with
Sitka spruce plantations. There was public opposition to this plan, and in 1985 the estate was sold to the
Nature Conservancy Council (predecessor to NatureScot), who declared the area a national nature reserve in 1986. ==Gallery==