27/09/2012 - For weeks to come I'm going to be having nightmares about this one. It looked so easy on the map. Park in the layby (SW 68763639), take right of way on west of hill then stroll up last 300m to cairn, job done. All was going fine until the last bit. The final 300-400m is a hellish bash through bramble & gorse. Finally getting to the cairn we were left battered and bloodied and we still had to go back down. The cairn is a good one though. Spoiled slightly by trig, mast and reservoir. There must be a better way up then the one we took.
The poor eponymous cairns on Carnmenellis have to squash up with abandoned granite quarries, a farm, reservoir, a mast, a triangulation pillar... But this book has the Copesque idea that the naturally sculptured earthfast boulders that were, are? here still, are its natural predecessors, a naturally sacred spot. http://www.archive.org/stream/earlyracesscotl01leslgoog#page/n22/mode/1up
I think the strange illustration must be from Borlase's book, as the Heritage Gateway mentions it (and mentions not being able to find the real thing). Several barrows / cairns have been noted up here though.
The interesting-sounding 'Giant's Cave' is on the lower slopes of the hill. But the HG dully says this is really the remains of a post-medieval structure - it's been dug out beneath a granite slab and is quite a big chamber at 6x6x1.4m.
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