The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
SEEKING OUT ROYAL RELICS
OUT AND Hidden in woods surrounding Balmoral Castle on Royal Deeside are 11 stone cairns erected by Queen Victoria. Gayle tracks down seven of them
N icknamed “the monoliths of the Cairngorms”, the stone cairns dotted around Balmoral estate are an impressive and unusual sight.
I knew nothing of their existence until last month, when a friend mentioned that he’d tracked down the towering relics on a woodland walk.
They were erected by Queen Victoria in honour of various family members, but the icing on the cake – the daddy of them all – is the enormous granite pyramid commemorating her beloved husband, Prince Albert.
A six-mile trail takes you right past the historic cairns and the views of Deeside are outstanding.
The sun was shining as I headed to Crathie, usually swarming with tourist buses, but I was delighted to find very few people around.
After parking beside the (closed) shop, I consulted my phone for directions – the trail isn’t signposted and it’s worryingly easy to get lost.
If you doubt your phone’s signal, I’d advise going armed with a print-out of instructions, or a book and a map.
And you need to be fairly fit to take on this expedition – there are a lot of hills to scale!
Crossing the shaking suspension bridge (my quivering-legged dog wasn’t a fan), I followed a private road uphill, passing a row of pretty cottages.
The eagle-eyed may spot a miniscule cairn symbol on a telegraph pole indicating the way, but it’s easily missed.
Nearby, there’s a signpost for Prince Albert’s cairn, but it’s a steep scramble and I fancied hunting down the smaller ones first.
Heading through a gate into dense woodland and over a rickety old bridge, I continued alongside a dry gorge.
The first cairn, marking Princess Helena’s marriage to a German prince in 1866, is tricky to spot – you can’t see it from the path – but if you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll spot a rough track winding up through the forest.
Next up, sitting on a rocky knoll, is Princess Louise’s cairn, erected to commemorate her marriage to the Marquis of Lorne in 1871.
The third, probably my favourite, is the Purchase Cairn, erected in 1852 to honour the purchase of Balmoral estate by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
The views across Deeside are stupendous and it’s the perfect picnic spot, complete with wooden bench.
I sat there basking in the warm sunshine and taking in the panoramic vista for a good half hour, enjoying my smoked salmon sandwiches and flask of coffee. Absolute bliss.
Just around the corner I found Prince Leopold’s cairn, boasting spectacular views down to Balmoral Castle.
The poor lad had haemophilia and sadly died aged 30 in 1884.
At this point of what felt like a treasure hunt, I got lost and somehow missed Prince Arthur’s cairn.
I went round in circles and thought about retracing my tracks but my legs were getting weary and time was ticking on.
Instead, I paused for a moment in a clearing to drink in the glorious views of snow-capped Lochnagar.
Minutes later, I found Princess Alice’s cairn perched on a mound, surrounded by mosscovered rocks and anthills.
She too died young – aged 35 – in 1878,
having married Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, in 1862.
A long and steep march uphill through dense woodland and muddy tracks eventually led me to Prince Albert’s Cairn.
And what a beast it is! The huge, granite pyramid-like structure apparently measures 41x41ft at the base, which makes taking a selfie beside it rather difficult!
After Albert’s death at 42, heartbroken Victoria began spending increasing periods at Balmoral, staying for as long as four months a year during early summer and autumn.
When her favourite servant John Brown died in 1883, she erected a cairn to him, but her eldest son Albert Edward, who disliked Brown, had it torn down.
Having noticed a patch in the forest where rubble was inexplicably scattered, I wondered if indeed, I had passed Brown’s memorial.
As I headed downhill, I passed my final cairn of the day – Princess Beatrice’s.
The youngest child of Victoria and Albert, she married Prince Henry of Battenburg and 1885 and died aged 87 in 1944.
Back home that night, I wondered why I’d only spotted seven cairns when I’d read of 11.
I knew I’d missed Arthur’s but what of the other three – Princess Victoria, Prince Albert Edward and Prince Alfred?
A quick Google indicated there are indeed cairns dedicated to Victoria and Albert Edward, but they’re on hills a bit further away. And for whatever reason, Prince Alfred never had a cairn dedicated to him.
That leaves one more on the Balmoral estate – the Diamond Jubilee Cairn, constructed by two dry stone “dykers” from Crieff and gifted to the Queen in 2012.
Having spent years exploring the Cairngorms and never knowing of this journey of discovery at Balmoral, I can highly recommend it.
It’s got everything – history, heritage, cracking views, unusual features and is a fantastic calorie burner and thigh-tightener!