Prince Albert’s Cairn — Attraction in Great Britain

There are said to be eleven stone cairns on the Balmoral Estate in Deeside, and one cairn on the the Birkhall Estate. The cairns celebrate various royal family and events. Mostly erected by Queen Victoria.

The largest is a Pyramid which was erected by Victoria in memory of her husband Prince Convort Albert after his death in 1861aged only 42. There are letters on stones on the wall to the left of the memorial board which i presume are the names of the people who errecred the pyramid.

A cairn was also errected by Queen Victoria to celebrate John Brown's life after his death. And removed by Edward VII who disliked Brown due to the influence on the queen and his unswerving devotion to Victoria but not her family. John Brown (8 December 1826 – 27 March 1883) was a Scottish Personal Attendant and favourite of Queen Victoria for many years after working as a gillie for Prince Albert. He was appreciated by the Queen and many of her staff for his efficiency, competence and companionship. The exact nature of his relationship with Victoria is subject to great speculation.

Around the same area you will also find Crathie Kirk and a statue to John Brown, Queen Victoria's loyal Personal Attendant & Friend for many years until his death in 1883 - with an inscription that describes him as a "friend more than a servant". Paperwork was later discovered tgat stated that Brown and Queen Victoria had indeed Married.

After Victoria's died, she requested two items were placed in her coffin. On one was Prince Albert's dressing gowns, the other was a lock of Brown's hair, and a picture of him and a ring belonging to Brown's mother and given to Victoria by Brown.

Were they Married? probibility is they were as The Revd, Dr Norman Macleod, the chaplain to Queen Victoria, stated he had conducted a marriage ceremony between John Brown and Queen Victoria. After Queen Victorias death the then Prince of Wales Edward VII, jealous of the confidence and respect had for Brown, he destroyed everything he could get his hands on in reference to Brown. A Statue to the great man was hidden from Edward VII, and survives to this day.

A Cairn to celebrate the marraige of HRH Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry Maurice is also on the path up to the...

This place is worth the effort to get there. We went off season so no signs. DIRECTIONS: Go to the car park for the Balmoral Castle. Park and don’t forget to buy your parking ticket. The gift shop has rest rooms if you need them. Go before you head out. It is about a 30-45 minute hike from the car park. After the car park you will cross the bridge. Stop and take a look at the river as you cross. Beautiful. You will come to the Castle visitor center. Take a left and walk down the road a bit. You will be going through the golf course. Turn right on the road to the Royal Lochnager Distillery. It goes uphill and very shortly the road branches to 3. Take the far right, not the one to the distillery. Take a quick left as you pass several beautiful stone homes. When you see the little guard house on the right hand side of the road you are near the trail head. Look across on the left just before guard house. This trail is quite an uphill climb and rocky path. You will come to a gate, don’t fret it wasn’t locked when we were there, they just want to make sure you shut it behind you. (Like your momma taught you). You will come to a smaller cone shaped cairn first on the left of the trail and you will find the Pyramid at the top of the hill. The views are spectacular once...

A truly wonderful walk. We started from Crathie car park, which has plenty of spaces and costs £5.00 for the day. Use postcode AB35 5TB, you can't miss it. The little post office/gallery is so lovely and has good priced refreshments too. There are toilets which are open 10am to 4pm. We followed the trail in the direction of the map, this is the more challenging way up. It is a steep and rough (in places) steady climb through a beautiful woodland. We heard Bullfinches and Crossbills throughout. That first view of the Cairn is quite something and really is amazing. The view over the Balmoral estate is stunning. We had a picnic before heading down. The path down is a gentle sweeping easy underfoot walk. We passed people coming up this way. Before heading back to the car park, we detoured to the Royal Lochnagar Distillery. This was a short uphill walk along the road. I thoroughly enjoyed this walk, which was about 7km in total. I can imagine that the weekends and April through to July (when Balmoral is open) it can...