Hill Of Backtack

Nearest town:
Huntly (7km E)
OS reference:
NJ46374163
OS sheets:
28, 29
Latitude:
57° 27' 42.94 N
Longitude:
2° 53' 38.53 W
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Hill Of Backtack

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Jan 3, 2017

This fieldnote is really an update on the state of the cairn (I removed the snow covered photos as they hid the damage) and the nearby wind turbine site.

The cairn looks like it is still in much the same condition except for the new improved fence. I’m glad it wasn’t there a few years back when the Mad Man and myself did a huge walk on the Winter Solstice.

Now the turbines seem to have contented themselves by staying in the valley between the hills of Cairnborrow and Backtack. The no pedestrian signs I ignored. However Backtack being a rolling hill has a couple of turbines reasonably close on its western slopes.

On climbing the Both Hill I saw the western side of Cairnborrow had its lower slopes ‘evened out’ very recently. This side of the hill leads straight to the three fantastic cairns at Glenshee.

Every time I pass here I will now stop and keep an eye on what is going on.

Re-visited 2/1/2017.

Hill Of Backtack

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Dec 21, 2009

This badly robbed cairn is about 15 metres wide and 0.5 meters tall. A walk of about 500 meters north is required from Backtack Farm, the cairn sitting on top of the rounded Backtack Hill.

Sadly the cairn has been badly trashed and only 1 earthfast kerb remains in place. Other kerbs can be found easily enough as they are lying all over the place. A serious amount of hacking has happened here and to add to the misery fencing is on the western edge.

A complete tragedy of a site considering lots of nearby excellent cairns. Still at least it survives for the time being unlike the nearby Hill Of Milleath (Gingomyres) RSC.

From here we walked, west, over to Cairnborrow.

Visited 21/12/09

Sites within 20km of Hill Of Backtack

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