It is a common upland variety above 600 metres in the Highlands of Scotland, with more than 10% of the UK population being found in the Cairngorm mountains, especially on scree slopes in Glen Feshie, and on Ben Avon, Ben MacDui and Beinn a' Bhùird.
Originally a Ski Championships (Slalom and Giant Slalom) only they were held annually in the Cairngorm mountains.
Iain Christie originally discovered the Christii fly with several others in the late 1980s, but the fly was not recognised as a new species until 1997, during a survey of the flora and fauna of the Cairngorms.
The Scottish population was first discovered in 1989 and is restricted to two sites in the Cairngorm mountains - the Lairig Ghru and Beinn a' Bhùird.
The village of Dinnet is a few miles west and is the first being located inside the famous Cairngorms National Park.
Badenoch (from the Scottish Gaelic Bàideanach meaning drowned land) is a traditional district which today forms part of Badenoch and Strathspey, an area of Highland Council, in Scotland, bounded on the north by the Monadhliath Mountains, on the east by the Cairngorms and Braemar, on the south by Atholl and the Grampians, and on the west by Lochaber.
River Dee, Aberdeenshire (Uisge Dè), Scotland, which flows from the Cairngorms to Aberdeen
It is interesting to note that other than the first ascent of Raven’s Gully in Glencoe by Hamish MacInnes and Chris Bonington in 1953 all the grade V routes in Scotland were confined to the Lairig’s stomping ground of the Eastern Cairngorms in the early 1950s and it is ironic that it was Lairig members Patey and Nicol who teamed up with Hamish MacInnes to climb the first grade V on Ben Nevis, this came in the form of the much prized first ascent of Zero Gully.