Captain Robertson's Cairns? These three beehive cairns sit just above the road as it passes over the hills between Dalnabreck and Kinlochmoidart in the Scottish Highlands. They're substantial - the largest must be about 12-feet tall. (Thread 🧵)
Hilltop Monuments
@totheobelisk.bsky.social
Occasional posts by @addingtonnick@bsky.social recording visits to #hilltopmonuments and other curiosities in high, remote or unexpected places, mostly in Scotland. Formerly on the other place @totheobelisk.
Encircled by trees on a low hill by the River Dee, near Durris, just west of Aberdeen, this is Keith's Tower, an elegant folly commemorating a landlord's legal victory. (Thread 🧵)
If you’re leaving Perth by rail or road, heading towards Dundee, you’ll probably spot the well-known landmark of Kinnoull Tower perched on the steep cliff to the north, overlooking the River Tay. But a couple of kilometres further is another hilltop tower, much harder to spot...
Commemorative cairn to Jozef Kijowski, former owner of ruined Achinduin Castle on the Isle of Lismore. Sited close to the castle, overlooking the tidal island of Bernera, which bears the ruins of a 6th century chapel founded by Irish missionary St Moluag, said to have been visited by St Columba.
Celebrating the solstice sunrise - on skates. Sighthill stone circle, Glasgow.
Two coastal labyrinths in south west Scotland. (Thread 🧵)
"The boy Stirling is quite mad, quite, quite mad. However, in a war there is often a place for mad people." Monty's description of David Stirling DSO OBE (1915-1990) sums up the maverick nature of the man who founded the SAS during the North Africa campaign in WWII. Thread 🧵
Maggie Wall burnt here as a witch 1657 A thread on this curious monument, unique in Scotland.
The Garnethill Pyramid. Part of a 35-year old artwork that fills much of Garnethill Park, a small greenspace north of Glasgow city centre, and close to Glasgow School of Art. Thread 🧵
All the locations featured on this account are on this Google Map ⬇️, including: 📷 an image of each monument or site 🔗 a link to the relevant post/thread. www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/e...
Hilltop monuments and other curiosities - Google My Maps
Sites featured on the Twitter microblog @totheobelisk (and now at @totheobelisk.bsky.social): monuments and other curiosities in high, remote or unexpected places, mostly in Scotland
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A hidden gem this attractive Gothic tower, built to commemorate Wellington's victory at Waterloo. Thread 🧵
Two #HilltopMonuments to heroes of the Napoleonic Wars, a mile apart, near Bakewell in Derbyshire’s Peak District. Modest in scale and not highly visible from a distance, they are interesting curiosities, nonetheless. (Thread 🧵)
It’s a perfect love Large, bold, generous, expansive, a little wild. (1/2)
St Cuthbert’s Cross, Alnmouth, Northumberland. (Thread 🧵)
A trio of mediaeval crosses on the North York Moors: Young Ralph, Old Ralph and Fat Betty. (Thread 🧵)
High on a shoulder of the hill called The Beacon, on the Simonside ridge near Rothbury in Northumberland, sits a truly remarkable boulder, known as Thompson's Rock. (Thread 🧵)
Sharp's Folly - an 18th century round tower in the hamlet of Whitton, just south of Rothbury, Northumberland. (Thread 🧵)
Who is this pious lady gazing heavenward from the kirkyard at Pittenweem Parish Church in Fife? It's a noteworthy sculpture on its own merits, but could it be something even more unusual? (Thread 🧵)
This cairn sits atop a low mound in upper Glen Lyon, Perth & Kinross. It commemorates local man Robert Campbell, who had a notable - if not exactly glorious - career as an explorer and trader in Canada, becoming the first European to explore the upper reaches of the Yukon River. (Thread 🧵)
One of Edinburgh's less well-known #HilltopMonuments - views of it being obscured by the mature trees surrounding it - this is Clermiston Tower on Corstorphine Hill in the west of the city. (Thread 🧵)
In between the weather fronts of Storm Ashley back in Oct last year was the most perfect window of blustery autumn sunshine, so we set out to find Lady Margaret’s Tower, high in the oak wood that covers the peninsula known as Garbh Ard in the Benderloch region of Argyll. (Thread 🧵)
These three elegant stone-built navigation pillars mark the rocky entrance to a small harbour at Knockbrex on the Solway coast, Dumfries & Galloway. (Thread 🧵)
Reposting for #HillfortsWednesday
Hilltop Monuments@totheobelisk.bsky.social · last yr.Standing stone erected at the centre of the hillfort on Dabshead Hill, near Lauder, Scottish Borders. Notable for its location, its re-use of a (probably) prehistoric monument, and for being that rare thing, a #HilltopMonument commemorating a woman. #StandingStoneSunday (Thread 🧵)
Standing stone erected at the centre of the hillfort on Dabshead Hill, near Lauder, Scottish Borders. Notable for its location, its re-use of a (probably) prehistoric monument, and for being that rare thing, a #HilltopMonument commemorating a woman. #StandingStoneSunday (Thread 🧵)
It feels appropriate for a time traveller to be granted the privilege of a memorable burial spot. (Thread 🧵)
This 4m-high tapering column on the rocks at Scurdie Ness on the east coast of Scotland is a navigational aid for mariners that predates the lighthouse beyond by a century or so. (Thread 🧵)
Follow the arrow. This enormous concrete symbol can be found laid out in the grass adjacent to the ruined Kilbrannan Chapel at Skipness Point on the Kintyre peninsula, Argyll. 1/4
