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A stacked pile of stones marking a route, a summit or a place.
Also known as: Stone man, Rock pile marker, Waymarker cairn
A cairn is a pile of stacked stones used to mark a route across ground where paint and posts will not last — bare rock, moorland, snowfield. It is the oldest waymarking there is and the least reliable: anybody can build one, walkers routinely add stones to the wrong pile, and a decorative cairn built at a viewpoint is indistinguishable from a navigational one. In poor visibility a cairn is a hint rather than a confirmation, which is why mountain guidance treats them with caution.
Marks a route across ground where painted or posted markers will not survive — bare rock, moorland and snowfield — which is why it is the oldest and most widespread waymarking method there is.
Contexts: Navigation, Maps
Is unverified by anybody. Walkers add stones to piles that are not routes, decorative cairns are built at viewpoints, and old cairns survive on abandoned lines, so in poor visibility a cairn is a hint rather than a confirmation.
Contexts: Navigation, Maps
Also marks burials, boundaries and summits, and some are prehistoric monuments protected by law — which is why building or dismantling one is not always the harmless act it appears to be.
Contexts: History, Navigation
A roughly triangular heap of unmortared stones drawn in outline, wider at the base and tapering to a point, standing free on open ground.
Both mark a route on the ground where a sign cannot stand.