Situated in the southern Cairngorms on the A93 between Braemar and the Spittal of Glenshee on Scotland's highest public road through the Cairnwell pass, the Glenshee ski centre is split across four mountains and three valleys.

The first skiers came to Glenshee in the 1930s, having learnt to ski on the continent, and sought somewhere in Scotland to continue with the sport. After the Second World War, some of these early skiing enthusiasts returned to the slopes, and built some simple rope tows on the Cairnwell to give a limited form of uplift. These basic tows consisted of a spliced rope, driven off the rear wheel of a tractor.

It was 1957 before there was any form of proper uplift at Glenshee, and this came in the form of the Meall Odhar T-Bar, constructed by the Dundee Ski Club who had previously had a part to play in the simple rope tows.

Five of these early pioneers reached an agreement with the Invercauld estate to lease the land, and went on to form the Glenshee Chairlift Company Limited. Construction then went underway to build the Cairnwell Chairlift and a small café. Following this, on December 1962, the area opened to the public.

After a good winter, and bolstered by its immediate success, construction began on the Sunnyside T-Bar in the summer of 1963. However, unfortunately the winter of 1963/64 proved to be a poor one, and the new lift operated for only seven days.

Despite this disappointment, the Glenshee Chairlift Company Limited continued to expand its area over four mountains and three valleys, quickly creating the largest snowsports area in Scotland. Other developments included snow making, which was installed on some of the lower slopes to top-up the base when required. However, development of these is currently somewhat restricted, given that Glenshee generates its own electricity, and snowmaking consumes a large amount.

A late 1980s and early 1990s proposal was to build a second Base Station and carpark, one mile away from the current one, where there would then be a four-person chairlift running from the Devil's Elbow to Meall Odhar, with two other tows. However, this was never carried out, and now probably never will be.

In the mid-1990s the Glenshee Chairlift Company Ltd announced a merger between the Glenshee Ski Centre and the Glencoe Ski Centre, offering "the best from east to west". However, with the companies diversifying business venture, Glenisla Golf Course, being injected with money to make it a quick success, the necessary money wasn't invested into the ski areas to improve profitability. Eight years later, in the autumn of 2003 after a poor winter, low skier day figures, and crippled by debts, the Glenshee Chairlift Company Ltd was forced into receivership, and the Glenshee Ski Centre was demerged from the Glencoe Ski Centre, and the ski area went on sale.

Announcing their closure that autumn, many believed that it would be the end for Glenshee. However, there was a management buyout which spelt the end for the Glenshee Chairlift Company Limited. When the ski area was re-opened for operations in winter 2004, it brought about a new beginning for Glenshee Limited.