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Piles of Stones

Piles of Stones


Postby Skyelines » Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:45 pm

There seems to be a proliferation of small piles of stones at many popular locations where tourists take a short stroll from the car park to some attractive viewpoint.

I can remember my first visit to Neist Point on Skye, the shore was a wild rocky place with an air of remoteness.
Today it is covered by a myriad of stone piles.

Piles are appearing at Sligachan and by the car park at the Quirang.

Why people build these little shrines to themselves in beautiful wild(ish) places is beyond my understanding and they annoy me intensely.

Is it just me or do others feel the same?
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby The Rodmiester » Mon Aug 22, 2016 7:14 pm

Skyelines wrote:There seems to be a proliferation of small piles of stones at many popular locations where tourists take a short stroll from the car park to some attractive viewpoint.

I can remember my first visit to Neist Point on Skye, the shore was a wild rocky place with an air of remoteness.
Today it is covered by a myriad of stone piles.

Piles are appearing at Sligachan and by the car park at the Quirang.

Why people build these little shrines to themselves in beautiful wild(ish) places is beyond my understanding and they annoy me intensely.

Is it just me or do others feel the same?

Don't get me started, I'm of the same opinion, leave as you find it, please.
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby jaybee » Mon Aug 22, 2016 7:47 pm

As irritating and unfathomable as they are, they will not survive the winter winds and will be gone by the Spring.
Only to re-appear next season.
Why visitors can't just enjoy the surroundings they have presumable travelled a fair distance to see is beyond me too.
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby Guinessman » Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:40 pm

Kick them over.

I remember doing the same with some cairns on Cioch na h-Oighe on Arran years back in 2000 where none had been there the year before.
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby BobMcBob » Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:52 pm

You miserable bunch. It's a bit of harmless whimsy. Doesn't spoil anybody's day or anybody's view. But it might remind you that someone was there before you were, which might be annoying to some I suppose. :crazy:
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby basscadet » Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:06 pm

I think they may be due to the 'In the night garden' kids program.. Macca Pacca (if thats how you spell it) makes up piles of stones of the type that have started appearing all over, and my wee nephew likes building them.. I dinnie see the harm really - wee ones out enjoying the fresh air and having fun :D
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby allanglens » Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:24 pm

Have noticed this in a few places. And not just recently, or in this country either. About five years ago I took a wee scramble up to a fairly anonymous little saddle overlooking Puerto Pollensa in Majorca, and found a number - maybe a dozen - little cairns of three, four, or five rocks leaning against each other, all with a further capstone on them. Very puzzling!
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby Guinessman » Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:46 pm

BobMcBob wrote:You miserable bunch. It's a bit of harmless whimsy. Doesn't spoil anybody's day or anybody's view. But it might remind you that someone was there before you were, which might be annoying to some I suppose. :crazy:


Nah I still say kick them over, am I beginning to sound a bit like Cab?
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby BobMcBob » Tue Aug 23, 2016 12:10 am

Guinessman wrote:
BobMcBob wrote:You miserable bunch. It's a bit of harmless whimsy. Doesn't spoil anybody's day or anybody's view. But it might remind you that someone was there before you were, which might be annoying to some I suppose. :crazy:


Nah I still say kick them over, am I beginning to sound a bit like Cab?


I'm staying out of that lest I should forfeit a limb :D
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby CharlesT » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:52 am

It's all a bit pathetic really. Where's the ambition? Our forbears built Stonehenge, the Ring of Brodgar and the magnificent Avebury, among countless other monuments. It's a sign of the diminished horizons in these days of instant gratification that little piles of stones are thought adequate. Surely a dolmen or two is not beyond our abilities. Come on folks, you can do better! :D
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby Caberfeidh » Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:00 am

Ahahahaharrr, me hearties! There are loads of wee cairns on the crest of the hill road between Invergarry and Cluanie. In summer they are weird enough but in winter they look like those spirit people in the ice which Eskimo legends tell of. Also in the snow you can really turn your ankle on them. I agree with Guinessman ~ let them feel the gravity of the situation; kick 'em down!

Wee Piles Of Stones#2.jpg
Wee cairns between Invergarry and Cluanie.
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby BobMcBob » Tue Aug 23, 2016 11:07 am

Caberfeidh wrote:Ahahahaharrr, me hearties! There are loads of wee cairns on the crest of the hill road between Invergarry and Cluanie.


Those cairns are a tourist attraction. In fact they're virtually a national monument. Some of them are memorials to loved ones. Tourists stop there by the bus load to gaze in wonder. An academic paper has been written discussing their origins and what it represents. Yes, really. You can't very well wade in there and start vandalising it now, can you?
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby Caberfeidh » Tue Aug 23, 2016 11:15 am

BobMcBob wrote:
Caberfeidh wrote:Ahahahaharrr, me hearties! There are loads of wee cairns on the crest of the hill road between Invergarry and Cluanie.


Those cairns are a tourist attraction. In fact they're virtually a national monument. Some of them are memorials to loved ones. Tourists stop there by the bus load to gaze in wonder. An academic paper has been written discussing their origins and what it represents. Yes, really. You can't very well wade in there and start vandalising it now, can you?


That sounds like a challenge.... :crazy:
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby BobMcBob » Tue Aug 23, 2016 11:24 am

Allright, I have to ask, because I've got nothing better to do, what is it that people find annoying about them? Because if you can't express it in a rational manner then it just sounds like an attack of the grumps to me :)
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Re: Piles of Stones

Postby Sunset tripper » Tue Aug 23, 2016 11:51 am

BobMcBob wrote:
Caberfeidh wrote:Ahahahaharrr, me hearties! There are loads of wee cairns on the crest of the hill road between Invergarry and Cluanie.


Those cairns are a tourist attraction. In fact they're virtually a national monument. Some of them are memorials to loved ones. Tourists stop there by the bus load to gaze in wonder. An academic paper has been written discussing their origins and what it represents. Yes, really. You can't very well wade in there and start vandalising it now, can you?


Bob you make them sound like the pyramids :D There was a load of cairns at the parking area at the top of the Bealach na ba last time I stopped there. I vote we should let them stay and maybe we could nominate these places to become UNESCO world heritage sites :D
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