Cairn Table Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A short hillwalk to the highest & most prominent point for
miles around. There is a path to the top, but it is steep &
rough in places, so don't try this one wearing heels or flipflops.
The cache is a small tupperware box located a short distance from
the summit, on the far southeasterly edge of the other big cairn.
You'll only have to move one small stone to uncover the cache, so
don't go taking the cairn apart! Walker-friendly parking is
provided near Muirkirk.
Cairn Table rises to a height of 594m (or 1949'), 3 miles (5 km)
southeast of Muirkirk on the Lanarkshire/ Ayrshire border. It is
the source of the Duneaton Water. The hill is easily identified
from a fair distance away owing to the prominent cairn from which
its name derives. On a clear day, Arran, Ben Lomond and the
Galloway Hills are all visible. Though sometimes you'll be lucky to
see the trig from the cairn...
The striking cairn is a modern war memorial, built to commemorate
local victims of the 1914-19 war, but it was built with materials
taken from already existing prehistoric cairns on the summit.
Summit stones were also used to make millstones, hence the name
Grindstone Rig immediately to the south. Unfinished millstones can
still be found scattered around the top. Narrowly failing to reach
the 2000' mark, Cairn Table features on several hill lists - it is
a Marilyn, with a very significant drop of 321m to the nearest col,
a HuMP, a Yeaman and a Dewey Donald.
The route is marked with red dots on the noticeboard in the Walkers
Car Park at Kames. Follow the white poles which mark the early
stages onto a track which leads over The Steel and straight up the
slopes of Cairn Table. An easy north-westerly descent leads by
Sanquhar Brig and a Land Rover track back to the start.
In June 2009, the record time in the annual Cairn Table Hill race
was slashed from 33.48mins to 31.08mins by Tom Owens from
Shettleston Harriers. Do not attempt to emulate this! It took me
53mins to the top on the day I set the cache, but the weather was
benign, I was moving pretty briskly & I know the terrain, so
allow for a good hour or more each way.
****No laybys were harmed in the setting of this cache***
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n ynetr clenzvq funcrq fgbar orfvqr n ovt syng fgbar, pbirerq ol n fznyy cvaxvfu fgbar.