The Sphinx snow patch on 2 September
A patch of snow believed to be the longest-lasting in the UK has melted for only the 10th time, according to records going back more than 300 years.
Known as The Sphinx, the snow patch forms in a sheltered area on Britain’s third highest mountain – remote Braeriach in the Cairngorms.
Snow expert Iain Cameron, who monitors the condition of the patch, said it melted away earlier this week.
Mr Cameron said it had now disappeared five times since 2017.
Until 100 years ago it had been considered a permanent feature of Scotland’s hills.
Last year when the patch disappeared in October it meant Scotland was snow-free for the fourth time in six years.
Image source, PAul Taylor/Geograph
The snow patch forms on Braeriach, Britain’s third highest mountain
Other high mountains, such as Ben Nevis, also have snow patches that can linger for long periods of time.
The Sphinx is historically the UK’s longest lasting patch and lies in Garbh Choire Mor, a hollow known as a coire and formed by ice or a glacier during the last ice age.
The coire is described as Scotland’s snowiest because of the amount of snow it can hold even through summer months.
The Sphinx is the name of a climbing route near the snow patch.
Image source, Adam Watson Collection
The late Dr Adam Watson researched the snow patch on Braeriach
Mr Cameron, author of the book The Vanishing Ice, worked alongside the late biologist Dr Adam Watson in monitoring snow conditions in the Cairngorms.
Some of Dr Watson’s research on the Sphinx drew on information handed down by generations of people who worked and visited the Cairngorms, including gamekeepers.
The Scottish Mountaineering Club began noting the fortunes of the patch in the 1840s and more recently scientists and ecologists have gathered information.
