Centre of Scotland Traditional Cache

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Schiehallion (3553ft) in Perthshire is Scotland’s 59th highest mountain and one of its best-known and best loved landmarks. It was originally thought to have been the centre of mainland Scotland, but now with the aid of technology the actual centre of Scotland is now 5 Km to the East on the side of a bracken covered hill, I prefer Schiehallion as the Centre.

This is perhaps the most interesting and romantic mountain in Scotland. There are two derivations of its name - the Maiden's Pap which is most appropriate from the direction of Loch Rannoch, or the Seat of the Caledonian Fairies. During the last ice age, a great glacier had its seat on Rannoch Moor. From there it spread west gouging out the straths. The peak of Schiehallion stood above the ice like an island. The millennia of frost left the shattered boulders and scree that cover the summit ridge. The mountain is quartz but one large granite boulder near the top was carried like a cork on the surface of the glacier and deposited on the shore when the ice withdrew.

On the west side of the mountain lies the Maiden's Well fed by one of the many crystal-clear springs of pure water that bubble from the heart of the hill. Here on the dawn of Beltane, the first of May, the girls from the townships would dance and drink to bring health and good fortune for the coming year. Long important in legend.

Schiehallion achieved a unique distinction in the eighteenth century. The Reverend Neville Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, came up with a plan to prove that Newton's Law of Gravity holds for matter on the Earth as well as in the heavens. For this he needed a symmetrical mountain - Schiehallion appeared to be perfect.

Maskelyne argued that if the earth was totally smooth, then a plumb line would point down towards the centre of the earth because of the force of gravity on the bob. But if there was a pimple on the earths surface (a mountain) then gravity would pull the plumb line very slightly towards it.

Over a period of four months, he and his colleagues camped out on Schiehallion - first on the south side then on the north - collecting data on the apparent altitude of the stars. If gravity did exist, then when Maskelyne was taking measurements on the south side of the hill, the plumb line should be deflected towards the north effectively decreasing the apparent altitude of the stars. The opposite should occur when he was on the north side of the hill. The difference between the two sets of readings would be the gravitational pull of the mountain.

Two hundred and thirty-seven measurements and many calculations later Maskelyne discovered that the mountain did in fact have a gravitational pull on the plumb line of 11.7 seconds of arc.
The surveyors took thousands of measurements to determine the relative volumes and positions of the mountains. Charles Hutton was a leading figure in analysing this data, and as part of this he divided the landscape into a number of vertical pillars around the observatories, thus inventing the concept of contour lines - essential to modern hillwalkers!

You never know this cache could be the start of something!!!

You are responsible for your own safety.
Are you fit enough to complete your chosen walk in the available time?
Know where you are going on the walk and follow the route on your map.
If in a Group know how many are in your party and stay together, never split up.
Ensure you have enough food plus emergency rations
Carry a map & compass, survival bag, torch, whistle and small first aid kit. Know how to use them.
In severe winter conditions you must carry an ice axe. You are also recommended to carry crampons.
Learn how to use your equipment
Cold temperatures will reduce the life of your batteries

Click HERE To Download a Route Card. Please leave the Card with a responsible person.

Oh! and watch out for the Fairies as this is Seat of the Caledonian Fairies.......There around!!

The Queen of Elfhame, mounted on her milk—white steed,
comes out now and again to cast her spells, and on moonshiny
nights the fairies would dance in a ring. “Fairy rings,”
dark green and sprinkled with toadstools, still serve to
show where their feet had danced.

Oh! I seen a couple of Tepee's on the Road up! Isnt that a Thingy Cache!

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