UKC

I was staying in the new aire at Coire Ciste near Aviemore and noticed a buttress just up the path towards Cairngorm. On the OS map, the ridge is named Creagan Dubh but I can find no record in guidebooks I have or online of the crag. I did a bit of exploring and there are some scrambles on it plus there looks to be some routes (there was some gear that had been left behind I spotted) Does anyone have any info on this crag?

I think it is Ciste Crag  aka Cranberry Rocks

It's fairly popular as a bad-conditions, get-something-done winter crag for instructed parties.

There are some old rock routes on the steeper towers, nowhere recorded, likewise a bunch of bouldering, some of which was in an old local guidebook by G2 Outdoor.

I've used it in winter and looked at the bouldering (and not bothered), never tried any of the old trad lines, but the fact that virtually no one does probably tells you all you need to know.

P.S. some of the trad routes look alright to be fair. You can see an old peg or two. I seem to remember being told that one was E4.

Part of the reason they won't have been recorded is just an old school attitude to short routes in the mountains, which has changed. Perhaps Ciste Crag is due a summer trad revival?

Cheers. There did seem to be a number of crampon scratches on the rock and we thought it must get climbed on as there is an obvious path to it.  We scrambled around a bit and looked at a couple of easier lines. Im thinking next time Im up I'll take a rope and have a play. 

They were mentioned in the 1970s SMC guidebook to the Cairngorms (several volumes planned but not all published) but no routes described from memory. Given the easy access & Glenmore Lodge just down the hill I'm sure many routes have been done if not recorded.