Direction to Caerketton Hill Cairn: I parked at NT 24954 66968, a car park at the Hillend Ski Centre junction with the A702 on the S edge of Edinburgh. A path leading W starts here, before it turns to the SW. This path leads up to an elevated ridge which commands impressive views of Edinburgh. Caerketton Fort and Cairn are accessed by this moderately steep route. My route can be viewed on Caerketton Hill Cairn.
There is a stony footprint of a cairn on the summit of Caerketton Hill, c. 0.5 mile SW of Hillend Ski Centre in Midlothian. The round cairn, which measures c. 50 feet in diameter, has been razed to ground level on all but the S Arc. A fence running E-W bisects the S half of the cairn, leaving a perimeter of original cairn stones c. 6 feet wide on the S Arc. A modern cairn, c. 3 feet high, has been constructed in the centre of the cairn. Caerketton Hill Cairn has panoramic views in all directions due to it's elevated location, c. 480m above Sea Level. Canmore ID 51764 has details of surveys of Caerketton Hill Cairn in 1928 and 1969.
28/01/2017 - I posted a photo of this cairn a few years back but to be honest I remembered little of the cairn and the photo seemed to only show a little bit of it. I've been wanting to go back and have another look for a while.
Starting from Edinburgh we took the 101 bus to Silverburn. From here we had a grand walk taking in Gladman's cairn on South Black Hill, Scald Law, the big cairn on Carnethy Hill, the little cairn on Turnhouse Hill, CastleLaw fort & souterrain, Allermuir Hill, this cairn on Caerketton Hill and finally the Hillfort on Hillend. Finished a long day at the Ski Centre for a cup of tea and then took the bus back to Edinburgh.
A good walk over the tops and a bit snowier than I thought it would be.
Three of the four cairns we visited are on Canmore. South Black Hill isn't but as Gladman has mentioned elsewhere, it really looks and feels the part. This cairn on Caerketton is smaller and has a fence running through it. Good views on a clear day!
There are many routes and paths to link up the tops and cairns in the Pentland Hills. Pick any, you can't go wrong. A magic day.
20/02/2010 - Parked at NT 24956697. Walked west, taking the path towards Allermuir Hill. Cairn is near summit of Caerketton Hill. Great view from it of Edinburgh. Stopped for a coffee in the ski centre on the way down.
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