UKC

What does the large cairn on the right as you enter Glencoe from the south commemorate?

I have always wondered what their purpose is, but have never stopped to look at them. I have asked several friends and none of them know either.

There are similar cairns by one of the great glen cattle ranch sheds.

In reply to the real dr gav:

Is this the Queen's Cairn? Something to do with Queen Vic, I think.

In reply to the real dr gav:

Did she build it herself?

In reply to the real dr gav:

It's where Queen Vicky hitched up her skirts and laid a cable while her carriage waited out of sight on the road. I don't know who built it or when (the current one is a rebuild of c.10 years vintage).

In reply to Removed User:

Did anyone have the presence of mind to keep one of her cables and pickle it in a jar?

Maybe there is such a soused shite mouldering away in a museum or private collection somewhere.

In reply to the real dr gav:

Aren't the boys in Hereford supposed to have one of Princess Anne's and an audio of HMTQ dropping the kids off at the pool?

Maybe it's one of those urban myth things.

In reply to the real dr gav:


They could have kept some of The Royal Wee as well.

In reply to Mark Bull:

Where the great lady halted her carriage and called for a picnic, during her famous Highland tour (which in fact started the whole tartan and bagpipes fashion that endures to this day).

In reply to the real dr gav:
the cairn means nothing
about 10 yrs ago some NTS vols practised their walling skills on it and created the igloo shape
originally large cairns of this type were for resting coffins on to keep them up high away from wolves
hope this helps
paul

In reply to sheeny:

That's bollox. I first saw the cairn over twenty years ago and it was that shape.

In reply to sheeny:

I, too, beg to differ. I used to live just down the road from the cairn, thirty years ago, and it was exactly that shape, although one side was falling down a bit.

I remember there was even talk of "repairing" it, considering it's tourist appeal. I remember one of the hardy locals (not to be named here) snorting over his whisky glass. He suggested the English could send a work party up from London!

From what you say this might have finally happened.