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crichton's cairn demolished

crichton's cairn demolished


Postby snowgoose » Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:31 am

I have just been up at Crichton's Cairn in the Campsies - or what's left of it - a small heap of wee stones with a fell race marker flag stuck on the top. The earth around it has been disturbed and rocks have been strewn around the surrounding slope. I could only see a few smallish ones so I don't know what's happened to the big ones. It must have happened very recently as the earth looks freshly disturbed and the grass under one or two of the stones I lifted up hadn't been compressed for long. I didn't go any further, so I'm not sure, but I think the next two cairns may have been attacked too - from the distance they looked smaller than usual. Has anyone heard anything about it?
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby GillSte » Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:19 pm

This isn't an isolated incident. I found that the summit cairn on Aodann Chleireig had been demolished, and the stones chucked randomly all over the grass. So I picked them up and rebuilt the cairn :D I agree fully with the idea that daft tourist cairns should be demolished, but I find it bizarre that anyone would want to demolish a summit cairn or ancient well built cairns. Whatever next? Will people start blowing up trig points?
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby jmarkb » Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:32 pm

Lightning strikes can demolish cairns very effectively: perhaps a more likely culprit than rabid cairn haters!
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby Essan » Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:41 am

Lightning is a possiblity.

If it's an ancient burial cairn then any damage to it is a criminal offence.
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby GillSte » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:39 pm

jmarkb wrote:Lightning strikes can demolish cairns very effectively: perhaps a more likely culprit than rabid cairn haters!

Agreed, but it's unlikely that lightning would throw every single one of the stones down the hill in exactly the same direction! I think it's rabid cairn haters in these cases.
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby Sunset tripper » Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:06 pm

Aye, you'd be surprised. There's a lot of stone haters about. :shock:
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby rgallie » Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:32 am

Smashed up in vengeance by someone who had their collection of stacked stones kicked away
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby Gareth Harper » Mon Oct 01, 2018 1:34 pm

Whatever next? Will people start blowing up trig points?


I was up Fuar Tholl a few days ago. The OS map says there is a trig point. I was definitely on the summit. But there was none.

Has it been blown up? Has somebody smashed it into little pieces? Has it been nicked? Or was it obliterated by a massive lightening strike?
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby helenw » Mon Oct 01, 2018 2:49 pm

when we were last up Fuar Tholl earlier this year, there was only a tiny bit of the trig point remaining inside the shelter cairn, see WH description, trig points on many hills are often pretty old and sucumbing to the weather over time
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby jmarkb » Mon Oct 01, 2018 2:53 pm

Some notes recording its gradual demise at http://trigpointing.uk/trig/3271
It was a stone-built one, which I guess are less durable than the more usual all-concrete pillars.
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby Old Stag » Mon Oct 01, 2018 7:22 pm

Ben Klibreck has an interesting collection of smashed up trig points.
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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby Gareth Harper » Mon Oct 01, 2018 7:55 pm

It looked fine when I was there. June 2012

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Re: crichton's cairn demolished

Postby Kevin29035 » Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:56 am

Similarly to Aodann Chleirig, every cairn from Beinn Mhic Ceididh to Sgurr na Ba Glaise was smashed up by the time I passed this summer: the stones down one slope and the tell-tale ring of soil on top where it used to be. Actually, given the size of some of these things, something smaller and tidier isn't a bad idea, and I was actually glad to see that when I passed.

If someone is throwing over anything historical then that is a shame. Perhaps we've rounded a corner here with the Fairy Glen being the trigger.
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