Smoky Quartz Guide: Traditions, Care, and Home Uses

Short answer

• Smoky quartz is a brown color variety of quartz, chemical composition silicon dioxide, Mohs hardness 7, with no cleavage and a glassy luster. Its color forms when natural radiation from surrounding rock activates color centers around aluminum impurities in the crystal. In Scotland it is called cairngorm after the Cairngorm Mountains, and it is often described as the national gem of Scotland, although no official act has declared it so. In modern crystal traditions it is associated with grounding and protection. Those associations are beliefs, not proven effects. Clean smoky quartz with warm, soapy water and a soft brush or cloth, store it apart from harder stones that can scratch it, keep it out of prolonged strong heat, and choose a protected setting for a ring worn every day. At home it is used for faceted stones, beads, cabochons, carvings, and crystal specimens, and as a decorative and symbolic object.

Introduction

Smoky quartz is the brown variety of quartz that looks like solid smoke. A pale stone can be a light grayish brown you can see through easily. A dark stone can be so deep a brown that it looks black until light passes through an edge. Between those extremes sits the warm, quiet color that has made this stone a brooch stone in Scotland, a practice stone for people learning to facet, a carving material, and a familiar desk and shelf specimen in modern homes.

This smoky quartz guide keeps two kinds of information apart from the first page to the last. The geology is verifiable: composition, hardness, how the color forms, where the stone occurs, and how to tell it from lookalikes and imitations. The traditions are cultural: associations with grounding, protection, and mourning, and practices described as cleansing or charging. Those traditions are presented here as beliefs held within particular traditions, not as scientific findings. There is no reliable scientific evidence that smoky quartz heals, protects, grounds a person in a physical sense, or changes health, mood, or life outcomes. For health concerns, consult a qualified health professional. For identification, valuation, or care advice for a valuable piece, consult a qualified gemologist or jeweler. Geology and care statements were checked against the Gemological Institute of America graduate gemologist account at Geology.com, the United States Geological Survey, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, opened on 31 October 2026.

What Smoky Quartz Is, and Why It Is Brown

Quartz itself needs no rarity story. The United States Geological Survey describes quartz as one of the most common minerals in the Earth crust, made up of silicon dioxide, also called silica, and calls it a common, hard silicate mineral. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History makes the same point in gem terms: quartz is one of the most abundant minerals in the Earth crust, composed of silicon and oxygen, and colorless in its pure state. Small amounts of impurity atoms yield its range of colors, and the Smithsonian lists smoky, brown to gray, among the common varieties.

Smoky quartz is the crystalline quartz variety colored brown. Geology.com, in an account by a Gemological Institute of America graduate gemologist, gives the range: from a light yellowish brown to a brown so dark that it appears to be black, with many specimens grayish and color often zoned, meaning darker and lighter bands sit in the same crystal. The physical properties are the quartz constants: chemical composition silicon dioxide, crystal system trigonal, luster vitreous or glassy, diaphaneity transparent to translucent, specific gravity 2.6 to 2.7, no cleavage, and a typical conchoidal fracture, the curved, shell like break familiar in quartz and glass.

The brown is the most misunderstood part, because the name suggests smoke trapped inside the stone. No smoke is involved. Geology.com states that the color is produced when natural radiation, emitted from the surrounding rock, activates color centers around aluminum impurities within the crystalline quartz. A color center is a defect in the crystal lattice that absorbs light unevenly, so white light entering the stone leaves as brown. Amethyst forms in a similar way, except that its color centers form around iron impurities rather than aluminum.

Because the mechanism is radiation plus a defect, people can copy it. Some colorless quartz, called rock crystal, can be given the color of smoky quartz by irradiation in a laboratory, with the exposure controlled to vary the color. Laboratory irradiation is not often done, because natural smoky quartz is inexpensive and abundant relative to demand, and synthetic smoky quartz is seldom produced for the same reason. Natural material with a very dark color is sometimes heated to lighten its color. Treatment therefore exists, it should be disclosed by a reputable seller, and it does not make a stone fake.

Where It Forms, and Where Good Crystals Come From

Smoky quartz is mainly found in quartz veins and pegmatite dikes that cut across igneous and metamorphic rocks, and well formed crystals are often found in cavities along the margins of a pegmatite. Material formed at lower temperatures is sometimes found in fractures of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Radioactive mineral deposits in many parts of the world are associated with very dark smoky quartz, which fits the color story above: the very dark material was probably colored by emissions from the radioactive minerals nearby.

Localities explain most price differences that are not about size or cutting. Brazil is the current source for most of the world smoky quartz used in jewelry, and Madagascar is another important producer in commercial quantities. Near Pikes Peak in Colorado, deposits of smoky quartz associated with amazonite have become world famous with collectors for their excellent crystals of both minerals. Other localities of note include Russia, Ukraine, and Switzerland. On May 31, 1985, smoky quartz was designated the official state gem of New Hampshire. None of that makes an ordinary faceted stone or bead strand scarce. Smoky quartz is a relatively inexpensive gem material because it is abundant and often found in large crystals of excellent transparency with few inclusions. Pay for color, cutting, condition, workmanship, and documented provenance, not for a claim that the mineral itself is rare.

Cairngorm: The Scottish Chapter

No locality carries more cultural weight for this stone than the Cairngorm Mountains in the Scottish Highlands. Cairngorm quartz, commonly shortened to cairngorm, is a yellow to dark brown variety of smoky quartz traditionally associated with the Cairngorms of northeastern Scotland. The name originally referred particularly to gem quality quartz collected on Cairn Gorm, Ben Avon, and neighboring mountains, although it was later applied more broadly to brown or yellow Scottish quartz. As the granite weathered, its feldspar decayed and left the harder quartz crystals loose in the decayed rock or washed into streams, where they were collected as surface specimens and water worn pebbles. Shepherds first picked up loose crystals on the hills, and diggers later sank shallow pits into the softened granite to reach the crystal bearing veins.

From the eighteenth century onward, cairngorm became one of the best known Scottish ornamental stones. It was used in seals, brooches, buttons, and snuff mulls, and in the fittings of weapons and accessories associated with Highland dress, including plaid brooches, fob seals, kilt pins, the handles or mounts of dirks and small Highland knives, and boxes and cases. Large stones were often cut as circular or oval faceted gems and mounted prominently in silver, and a rich sherry yellow color was particularly esteemed. Nineteenth century interest in Scotland increased demand for Highland jewelry, helped by Walter Scott, the visit of George IV to Scotland in 1822, and Queen Victoria’s attachment to Balmoral and the Highlands.

Two cautions belong in any honest account of that history. First, the familiar label needs qualifying. The stone is often spoken of as Scotland’s traditional or national gem, and Geology.com calls it the national gem of Scotland, but no statute or official act has ever declared it so. Traditional is the defensible word. Second, demand outran Scottish supply early. Dealers turned to imported and treated quartz, so many gems sold as cairngorms never came from Scotland at all. Testing can separate quartz from topaz or glass, but no test will say whether a cut stone came off Cairn Gorm. Provenance, inscriptions, and old paperwork count for more than the stone itself. Highland dress use is documented in surviving museum objects. Protective power, by contrast, is a belief attached to those objects, not a documented property of the stone.

Morion, Cairngorm, Citrine, and the Smoky Topaz Problem

Smoky quartz collects names, and the names cause real buying mistakes. The boundaries between cairngorm, citrine, smoky quartz, and morion are based chiefly on color and usage rather than on sharp mineralogical distinctions. Yellow quartz is generally termed citrine, brown material is termed smoky quartz, and very dark brown or almost black material is termed morion. Cairngorm adds locality and tradition to the same scale: in strict traditional use it is Scottish smoky quartz, especially from the Cairngorm granite, though Heddle, who cataloged it as cairngorm, or smoky quartz, also recorded material called cairngorm from Sutherland, the Hebrides, and other parts of Scotland, and the trade historically sold foreign yellow and brown quartz as cairngorm as well.

The name to question is smoky topaz. True topaz is a different mineral, harder and heavier than quartz. Quartz sold as smoky topaz is still quartz, and foreign quartz was historically sold as cairngorm, as false topaz, or simply as topaz. A seller using smoky topaz as a nickname for quartz follows an old trade habit. A seller using it to imply that quartz is topaz, or pricing quartz as topaz, misleads the buyer. Ask one plain question: is this quartz or topaz? Dark citrine can also resemble pale smoky quartz at the yellow brown boundary. That overlap is trade usage at a color boundary, not deception, and it is one more reason to buy the color you can see in daylight rather than the name on a card.

How to Identify Smoky Quartz

Start with the properties that do not require equipment. Genuine smoky quartz is transparent to translucent, with a vitreous, glassy luster, a warm brown to gray brown color that is often zoned, and, in crystal form, the six sided prismatic habit with a pointed termination that quartz commonly shows. Hold a stone or point up to the light. Natural material commonly shows uneven color, a darker base or tip, or bands of darker and lighter brown that reflect how the crystal grew. A perfectly even, very dark color in a large, very cheap stone deserves a question about treatment or material, because treated stones are legitimate only when disclosed.

Then rule out the common confusions. Glass imitations are softer than quartz and often show round bubbles or an unnaturally even color under magnification. Do not scratch test a finished stone, a carving, or a set jewel to check hardness. The test can damage the piece you are trying to protect, and hardness is only one property in any case. Topaz is harder, at Mohs 8, and noticeably heavier at the same size, because its specific gravity is higher than the 2.6 to 2.7 of quartz. A gemologist can confirm identity with standard testing, including refractive index and specific gravity, without damaging the stone.

Treatment questions are part of identification. Ask whether the color is natural or produced or enhanced by irradiation, whether a very dark stone has been heated to lighten it, where the material comes from, and whether that origin is documented or simply claimed. For antique cairngorm jewelry, a large specimen, or any piece bought at a collector price, professional appraisal is worthwhile. An appraiser can confirm identity, assess treatment and condition, and provide a valuation for insurance. No appraisal can prove Scottish origin for an undocumented cut stone: origin lives in paperwork and provenance, not in the crystal.

Traditions and Beliefs, Stated as Beliefs

In modern crystal traditions, smoky quartz is most often described as a grounding and protection stone. Practitioners associate it with the root chakra, the energy center in chakra based systems traditionally linked to stability and connection to the earth, and describe it as an anchoring stone, held during meditation, placed on a desk or altar, or carried as a tumbled stone as a reminder to stay present and calm. Other traditions link it to the dispersal of negative energy and to guidance through difficult times. Each of those sentences describes what people believe and do within a tradition. None of them is a scientific finding, and this guide does not present the stone itself as producing calm, protection, or any other change in a person.

Mourning is the tradition with the clearest object record behind it. Dark stones visually expressed grief and memory in Victorian mourning and sentimental jewelry, and smoky quartz took part in that language on both sides of the Irish Sea. Geology.com records that dark brown smoky quartz is often used in men’s rings and cufflinks, and that during the Victorian period, dark brown stones from the Mourne Mountains of Ireland were often used in mourning jewelry. A modern buyer who chooses a dark stone for a remembrance piece continues a documented visual tradition. That continuity is cultural meaning, and it needs no claim about power to be real.

Scrying, the practice of gazing into a reflective or translucent surface for divination, is sometimes attached to smoky quartz in modern accounts, although clear quartz and obsidian are more commonly associated with that practice. Claims of ancient Druidic use are also common in crystal literature. Many such claims rest on modern retellings rather than on primary historical sources, and Druidic traditions in particular are often invoked without strong documentary evidence. A useful test keeps every tradition claim honest. If a claim can be reworded as people believe, people associate, or people use this stone to symbolize, it belongs here as tradition. If a claim needs the stone itself to cause a change in a body, a mood, or an outcome, it is an effect claim, and no reliable scientific evidence supports it.

Caring for Smoky Quartz

Smoky quartz is durable enough for regular wear, and its care routine is short. Clean it with warm water, mild soap, and a soft brush or cloth, then rinse and dry thoroughly. Avoid harsh chemicals and abrasive cleaners. Be cautious with ultrasonic and steam cleaning: a solid, fracture free stone in a sound setting is a different case from a stone with fractures or inclusions, an antique mounting, or a glued or strung piece, and machine cleaning can damage those pieces or their settings. When in doubt, wash by hand or ask a jeweler whether machine cleaning suits that specific piece. Remove jewelry before heavy manual work, gardening, or swimming in chlorinated water. Hardness 7 resists scratching by most everyday materials, but it does not prevent a chip at an edge or point from a sharp blow, and harder stones, including topaz, corundum, and diamond, can scratch it.

Heat deserves a specific note, because heat is part of this stone’s own treatment history. Very dark natural smoky quartz is sometimes heated to lighten its color, which tells an owner what sustained strong heat can do. Keep valuable or dark pieces out of prolonged strong heat, and as a precaution keep treated material and display specimens out of prolonged intense sunlight, rather than using a sunny windowsill as a permanent display spot. Store smoky quartz separately from harder stones that can scratch it and from softer stones that it can scratch in return. A soft pouch or a separate compartment in a jewelry box is ideal. Display specimens on a stable surface, dust them gently, and avoid water on specimens with fragile matrix or attached minerals unless you know those minerals are water safe. Have ring settings checked periodically, because prongs wear and a loose stone can be lost without notice. Restring beaded necklaces when the cord shows wear, and keep strung beads away from prolonged soaking, perfume, and hairspray.

Home Uses: Display, Jewelry, Collecting, and Personal Practice

Display and decor come first, because they require no belief at all. A smoky quartz cluster, point, sphere, or polished stone is an attractive natural object, and its earthy, neutral tones suit rustic and modern interiors alike. Place display pieces where the light is indirect. Backlighting a translucent point on a shelf shows the zoning and the smoke like gradation better than flat overhead light, and indirect light is also the safer long term choice for treated or dark material, for the heat reasons covered in the care section.

Jewelry is the second use. Rings, pendants, necklaces, earrings, and brooches are all standard forms, and dark brown material has a long record in men’s rings and cufflinks. Because smoky quartz is abundant and large pieces are easily obtained, it is also a favorite practice material for people learning to facet, and frequently used as a carving material, which is why well cut stones and competent carvings are available at modest prices. For daily wear, match the form to the knocks it will take. Pendants and earrings face the fewest impacts. A daily ring is better in a low, protected setting, such as a bezel, than in high, exposed prongs. An early use adds perspective: as early as the twelfth century, flat pieces of smoky quartz were used in China to make eyeglasses.

Collecting is the third use. Collectors value smoky quartz for its crystal forms, its localities, and its associations with other minerals, above all the Pikes Peak combination with amazonite. A focused collection might pursue a single locality, such as Colorado, the Swiss Alps, or Scotland, or a single habit, such as doubly terminated points, clusters, or zoned crystals. Personal practice is the fourth use, stated in tradition terms only. Some people hold smoky quartz during meditation, keep a point on a desk, or carry a tumbled stone as a focus for intention or a reminder of a quality such as calm or groundedness. Those practices are meaningful to the people who do them as habits and symbols. Their effects are matters of belief and personal experience, not scientifically established outcomes.

Cleansing and Charging as Traditional Practice

Many crystal traditions include practices described as cleansing or charging a stone, intended within those traditions to clear it of accumulated energy or to refresh its associations. Common methods include placing the stone in moonlight, using sound such as a bell or singing bowl, passing it through incense smoke, burying it briefly in earth, or placing it on a larger crystal cluster.

For smoky quartz, the practical care facts still govern. The stone itself tolerates brief rinsing for cleaning, as covered in the care section. Specimens with fragile matrix, jewelry with glued settings, and strung beads should not be soaked, whatever the ritual intention. A dry method, such as moonlight or sound, avoids that risk entirely. The framing matters more than the method list. Cleansing and charging are ritual and symbolic practices within particular traditions. There is no scientific evidence that a stone accumulates energy that needs clearing, or that moonlight or sound changes its physical properties. People who practice these methods often describe them as refreshing or focusing, and that experience is part of the practice value for them. Adopt, adapt, or ignore them according to your own beliefs.

Buying Smoky Quartz Well

Buying well starts with naming the job: a jewelry stone, a specimen, a decorative piece, or a small tumbled stone for carrying. For jewelry, look for the orangish brown to reddish brown color many buyers prefer, or the grayish brown or near black tone you personally want, with good clarity, an even or attractively zoned color, a well executed cut, and a secure setting. Because smoky quartz is often found in large crystals of excellent transparency with few inclusions, a heavily included stone should be priced accordingly. Surface reaching fractures can weaken a stone and should be noted. For specimens, crystal form, completeness of points, association with other minerals, and documented locality matter more than perfect clarity. Check the piece in daylight as well as under shop lighting, because warm artificial light flatters brown stones.

Ask sellers direct questions, and judge the answers as part of the purchase. Is the color natural, or was it produced or enhanced by irradiation or heating? Where does the material come from, and is that origin documented or simply claimed? Has the stone been coated or dyed? Is the stone quartz, or is smoky topaz being used as a name for quartz? A reputable seller will answer clearly. Be cautious of sellers who claim healing powers, guarantee outcomes, or use high pressure language. Price varies widely for legitimate reasons: small tumbled stones and simple jewelry are inexpensive, while large, well formed specimens, fine antique cairngorm pieces with paperwork, and documented Pikes Peak amazonite combinations command higher prices. Compare similar pieces before buying an expensive item, consider professional appraisal at a collector price, and buy most smoky quartz for enjoyment rather than as an investment. Common stones rarely appreciate reliably.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is smoky quartz a real gemstone, or just a common rock?

It is both. Quartz is one of the most common minerals in the Earth crust, and smoky quartz is its brown variety, faceted, cut into beads and cabochons, carved, and set in rings, pendants, necklaces, earrings, and brooches. Its affordability comes from abundance, not from any lack of beauty or durability. Fine color, fine cutting, an important locality, or documented antique Scottish provenance can still make a particular piece valuable.

What is the difference between smoky quartz, cairngorm, and morion?

They are overlapping names for the same variety, separated by color, locality, and usage rather than by mineralogy. Smoky quartz is the general name for brown quartz. Cairngorm traditionally means smoky quartz from the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland, though the name was later applied more broadly and was also used in trade for imported material. Morion means the very dark brown to almost black end of the same range. Yellow material at the light boundary is generally called citrine.

Does smoky quartz have healing or protective powers?

No reliable scientific evidence shows that smoky quartz heals, protects, or influences health or life outcomes. Associations with grounding, protection, calm, and the root chakra are beliefs within modern crystal traditions, and older folklore attached protective meanings to cairngorm stones in Scotland. Those beliefs are part of the stone’s cultural story, presented here as traditions. Enjoy the stone for its beauty, history, and personal meaning, and seek professional care for health concerns.

Can I wear smoky quartz every day?

Yes, with reasonable care. At Mohs hardness 7, with no cleavage, it resists everyday scratching well. Rings and bracelets face more knocks than pendants and earrings, so choose a low, protected setting for a daily ring, remove jewelry before heavy work, gardening, or sports, and have settings checked periodically. A sharp blow can still chip an edge or point, because hardness measures scratch resistance, not toughness.

How should I clean and store smoky quartz?

Clean it with warm, soapy water and a soft brush or cloth, rinse it, and dry it thoroughly. Avoid harsh chemicals, and be cautious with ultrasonic and steam cleaning for fractured, included, antique, glued, or strung pieces. Store it in a soft pouch or a separate compartment, apart from harder stones such as diamond, sapphire, and topaz that can scratch it, and apart from softer stones that it can scratch. Keep display pieces in indirect light and away from prolonged strong heat.

Is the smoky quartz in shops natural, or has it been treated?

Both are sold, and treatment is a disclosure question rather than a scandal. Natural color forms when radiation from surrounding rock activates color centers around aluminum impurities, and the same color can be produced by irradiating colorless quartz in a laboratory, although Geology.com notes that laboratory irradiation is not often done because natural material is abundant and inexpensive, and synthetic material is seldom produced. Very dark natural stones are sometimes heated to lighten the color. Ask what applies to your piece, and do not pay a natural or Scottish premium without documentation.

Keep reading: Labradorite Guide: Traditions, Care, and Home Uses

Sources & references

• Geology.com, Smoky Quartz: A Transparent Brown Gem and Gem Material, by Hobart M. King, PhD, Gemological Institute of America Graduate Gemologist. Used for smoky quartz as a brown color variety of crystalline quartz ranging from light yellowish brown to brown so dark it appears black, with many specimens grayish and color often zoned, orangish brown to reddish brown preferred by many buyers for cut gems, relative inexpensiveness from abundance and large crystals of excellent transparency, color produced when natural radiation from surrounding rock activates color centers around aluminum impurities, amethyst forming similarly around iron impurities, laboratory irradiation of rock crystal to produce smoky color with controlled exposure, laboratory irradiation not often done and synthetic smoky quartz seldom produced because natural material is inexpensive and abundant, very dark natural material sometimes heated to lighten color, faceting, beads, cabochons, rings, pendants, necklaces, earrings, and brooches, dark brown stones in men's rings and cufflinks, Victorian period mourning jewelry using dark brown stones from the Mourne Mountains of Ireland, use as practice faceting material and carving material, twelfth century use of flat pieces in China for eyeglasses including judges hiding facial expressions, the physical properties table listing silicate classification, vitreous luster, transparent to translucent diaphaneity, no cleavage with conchoidal fracture, Mohs hardness 7, specific gravity 2.6 to 2.7, chemical composition silicon dioxide, and trigonal crystal system, geologic occurrence in quartz veins and pegmatite dikes cutting igneous and metamorphic rocks with well formed crystals in cavities and lower temperature material in fractures of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, very dark material associated with radioactive mineral deposits, Brazil as the current source for most jewelry smoky quartz, Madagascar as another important producer, Scotland national gem wording and the cairngorm name, Pikes Peak, Colorado amazonite association, the May 31, 1985 designation as official state gem of New Hampshire, and Russia, Ukraine, and Switzerland as other localities of note. Where this article qualifies the Scotland national gem wording as traditional rather than statutory, the qualification comes from the cairngorm source below, which governs on that point.
• United States Geological Survey, Quartz, Youth and Education in Science, November 15, 2018. Used for quartz as one of the most common minerals in the Earth crust, made up of silicon dioxide, also known as silica, and described as a common, hard silicate mineral that was used to make tools.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Quartz (var. smoky-citrine), Geogallery collection page, object added to the collection in 2013. Used for quartz as one of the most abundant minerals in the Earth crust, a major constituent of beach sand and an important component of many types of rocks, composed of the elements silicon and oxygen, colorless in its pure state, small amounts of impurity atoms yielding a range of colors, and smoky, brown to gray, listed among the common varieties of quartz alongside citrine, amethyst, rock crystal, and rose. The page cataloged object is a smoky citrine gem, and this article does not present its weight or cut as facts about smoky quartz generally.
• Cairngorm quartz, Wikipedia, citing Heddle Mineralogy of Scotland, the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica cairngorm entry, Starkey Crystal Mountains, and Brown and Laurenson, Geology to Jewellery, National Museums Scotland, 2024. Used for cairngorm as a yellow to dark brown variety of smoky quartz traditionally associated with the Cairngorms of northeastern Scotland, the name originally referring particularly to gem quality quartz from Cairn Gorm, Ben Avon, and neighboring mountains and later applied more broadly to brown or yellow Scottish quartz, use from the eighteenth century onward in seals, brooches, buttons, snuff mulls, and fittings of weapons and accessories associated with Highland dress, the fuller documented list including plaid brooches, fob seals, kilt pins, dirk and small knife handles or mounts, snuff mull lids, and boxes and cases, large stones cut as circular or oval faceted gems mounted prominently in silver with a rich sherry yellow color particularly esteemed, combination with agate, jasper, and bloodstone in Scottish pebble jewelry, nineteenth century demand helped by Walter Scott, the 1822 visit of George IV, and Queen Victoria's attachment to Balmoral and the Highlands, boundaries between cairngorm, citrine, smoky quartz, and morion resting chiefly on color and usage, yellow termed citrine, brown termed smoky quartz, and very dark brown or almost black termed morion, Heddle cataloging of cairngorm, or smoky quartz, with material also recorded from Sutherland and the Hebrides, trade sale of foreign yellow and brown quartz as cairngorm, false topaz, or topaz although true topaz is a different mineral, chemical identity as ordinary quartz, silicon dioxide, with smoky color as a radiation effect from traces of uranium and thorium in surrounding granite creating color centers over geological time, occurrence in cavities and veins in the Cairngorm granite including pegmatitic veins, loose crystals left by weathered feldspar decay and collected from hillsides, streams, and shallow pits, demand outrunning Scottish supply with imported and treated quartz sold as cairngorm, testing separating quartz from topaz or glass but no test establishing Cairn Gorm origin for a cut stone, the tradition of cairngorms in the Honours of Scotland not fully supported by modern examination, and the stone often spoken of as Scotland's traditional or national gem though no statute or official act has ever declared it so.