📌 Crathes, Aberdeenshire
★★
The steady slog uphill isn’t much to write home about, but Cairn-mon-earn’s position above the Slug Pass makes it an excellent vantage point for both the North Sea coastline and lower Deeside. This 378-metre hill’s slopes are densely clad in forestry plantations (though some had recently been cut down on our visit), but the trees stop just shy of the cairn and trig pillar, which share the summit with a collection of manmade masts. The ideal objective for a lazy hill-bagger, perhaps?
📷 Chronological photo guide
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish just off Slug Road (A957) 0.5 mi southeast of the road’s high point, 4 mi southeast of Crathes
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NO 781909
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 57.008817,-2.362303
❌ No public transport within 1 mi
🚗 Car park
📝 Key info
▶ 7 km / 4 mi | ▲ 200 m | ⌛ 1.5 hr
Features: △ Cairn-mon-earn (378 m, sub-2000′ Marilyn)
⬤ Moderate | Good tracks, then path for final few hundred metres. Gentle ascent.
Download file for GPS➡️ Out-and-back walk: start – summit cairn & trig pillar via tracks around east side of hill – return by outward route
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Wood ants, a shrew, a few birds and butterflies.
Weather: Sunny intervals, generally becoming cloudier. Breezy on the summit, temperature in mid teens.
July 2020
