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As I happened to be in Fort William for a family get together one bright September weekend, I took advantage of the dry weather we had been having to take in the three Munros on the Creag Meagaigh circuit. My great-great-great grandfather was a crofter at Spean Bridge many moons ago. His grandfather before him was famed for stealing sheep and poaching in this area, living with his family on an island in Loch Quoich, which sank below the water when the levels were raised for a hydro scheme in the 1950s. So marching across these hills I can pretend that I am following in the footsteps of my forebears. Maybe it was because I was thinking about them, living and dying here, that I was uncomfortable with the prominent landmark known as "Mad Meg's cairn" being so named. It's a derogatory term for a person that we wouldn't use now. The story associated with it is a sad tale, but it also seems to have no truth in it at all.
- Picture postcard pretty views, looking up towards "The Window" between Creag Meagaidh and Stob Poite a'Choire Àrdair
In good weather the walk itself was pretty straightforward. The path up to Càrn Liath is well built initially, before petering out a bit, but the way ahead is obvious. From here the ridge across to Stob Poite a'Choire Àrdair is a lovely walk with only minor ascending and descending to trouble you. You then head down to "The Window", the notch between the ridge you've just come along and the gradual climb up to the plateau of Creag Meagaidh.
- Looking down towards Lochan Coire Ardair
As you come up this slope you see a large cairn on the skyline ahead of you, which is often said to confuse walkers in poor visibility mistaking it for the summit, but it seems to serve no purpose and marks no summit. Mad Meg's cairn.
On a clear day as you approach it, it becomes obvious that the true summit of Creag Meagaidh lies further ahead. Out and back to the summit, the usual return to the car park on the A86 descends through The Window, and down past the beautiful Lochan Coire Ardair.
But what about the confusing cairn? Who was Mad Meg?
- Meg's cairn as you first approach it
The first question arises, why would you build a cairn here? On a northern edge of the Creag Meagaidh plateau at a height of over 1100m, it is a sizeable structure. It is several meters across and made with a mixture of earth and rocks, and has a modern cairn atop it. The Walkhighlands route description, The Scottish Mountaineering Club Munros book, and most other guides all call it "Mad Meg's Cairn". Searching the internet tells you that local legend says that it marks an 18th century grave, a local woman who had committed suicide. Her family buried her here under this large cairn, when the local church wouldn't allow her body to be buried in their graveyard. Certainly this has become the standard explanation, but this story seems to a mere modern concoction.
- Meg's cairn, viewed on the way back from the summit of Creag Meagaidh
If it was constructed in the 18th century why is it never recorded on any of the later Ordnance Survey maps (it still isn't)? The men on the march to draw up the 1819 Ordnance Survey passed this way without noting its presence in their detailed notes of the area. It is mentioned by a certain Sir Hugh Munro in 1894 who even seems to be told about the man building it.
To the north-east of the summit of Creag Meaghaidh is a huge
cairn, as big as a house, on the side of the hill, the work of a
neighbouring farmer, who, unsound in his mind, has for some
years past been going up the mountain every day whenever
possible to add to it.
The excellent work of Leen Volwerk in investigating it further is documented in the 2013 edition of the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal. By digging through the census, old maps, walking these hills, and talking to local residents he came up with the convincing theory that one of the brothers running the Moy Farm in the 1890s, Joseph McLaren, is the likely architect of the cairn during his time spent up in the glen in a nearby sheiling during the summer months. It is worth digging out the article to read the evidence that Leen puts forwards.
- "Mad Meg's cairn"
So there was no burial. No mad woman who committed suicide. There wasn't even a Meg, surely just a shortening of the mountain's name. It's telling though that this modern myth takes hold, that we are happy to believe the old trope of a crazy woman. So let me propose that we move forwards and avoid this pejorative term. If we want to preserve the mythical woman of the mountains, why not just call it "Meg's cairn"? Or, as Leen Volwerk suggests, we could rename it "McLaren's cairn". This would allow the farmer described by Munro as "of unsound mind", and by Victorian census takers as "imbecile" to have the dignity of being remembered by giving his name to this unique cairn.