Abstract
Synopsis: The Cairngorm Granite is a composite, stock-like body composed mostly of porphyritic and non-porphyritic biotite-granites, with numerous later minor granitic bodies that exhibit a variety of cross-cutting relationships. It is almost entirely structureless internally, its external contacts are vertical, discordant and unchilled, and country rock xenoliths are rare. It reached its present level of exposure by the stoping of very large blocks of country rocks, and no evidence is seen of diapiric emplacement. During its ascent the magma body behaved as a Bingham fluid, and the unusual rheological properties of this fluid are considered to have determined both the size and the number of xenoliths seen in the granite.