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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Captain Robertson's Cairns? These three beehive cairns sit just above the road as it passes over the hills between Dalnabreck and Kinlochmoidart in the Scottish Highlands. They're substantial - the largest must be about 12-feet tall. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Encircled by trees on a low hill by the River Dee, near Durris, just west of Aberdeen, this is Keith's Tower, an elegant folly commemorating a landlord's legal victory. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

If you’re leaving Perth by rail or road, heading towards Dundee, you’ll probably spot the well-known landmark of Kinnoull Tower perched on the steep cliff to the north, overlooking the River Tay. But a couple of kilometres further is another hilltop tower, much harder to spot...

Kinnoull Tower, a folly built to resemble the ruined castles of the Rhine Valley, perched on a cliff overlooking the River Tay near Perth, Scotland.

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Commemorative cairn to Jozef Kijowski, former owner of ruined Achinduin Castle on the Isle of Lismore. Sited close to the castle, overlooking the tidal island of Bernera, which bears the ruins of a 6th century chapel founded by Irish missionary St Moluag, said to have been visited by St Columba.

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Celebrating the solstice sunrise - on skates. Sighthill stone circle, Glasgow.

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Two coastal labyrinths in south west Scotland. (Thread 🧵)

A close view of the Mossyard Labyrinth looking towards Mossyard Beach and the estuary of the Water of Fleet

A view West across the Dunure Labyrinth, the Isle of Arran in the distance

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

"The boy Stirling is quite mad, quite, quite mad. However, in a war there is often a place for mad people." Monty's description of David Stirling DSO OBE (1915-1990) sums up the maverick nature of the man who founded the SAS during the North Africa campaign in WWII. Thread 🧵

A life-sized bronze statue of David Stirling in a duffle coat and uniform, with field glasses in hand, posed as if facing into a desert wind.

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Maggie Wall burnt here as a witch 1657 A thread on this curious monument, unique in Scotland.

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

The Garnethill Pyramid. Part of a 35-year old artwork that fills much of Garnethill Park, a small greenspace north of Glasgow city centre, and close to Glasgow School of Art. Thread 🧵

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

A hidden gem this attractive Gothic tower, built to commemorate Wellington's victory at Waterloo. Thread 🧵

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Two #HilltopMonuments to heroes of the Napoleonic Wars, a mile apart, near Bakewell in Derbyshire’s Peak District. Modest in scale and not highly visible from a distance, they are interesting curiosities, nonetheless. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

It’s a perfect love Large, bold, generous, expansive, a little wild. (1/2)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

St Cuthbert’s Cross, Alnmouth, Northumberland. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

A trio of mediaeval crosses on the North York Moors: Young Ralph, Old Ralph and Fat Betty. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

To the stones. Duddo Five Stones, Northumberland. #StandingStoneSunday (Thread)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

High on a shoulder of the hill called The Beacon, on the Simonside ridge near Rothbury in Northumberland, sits a truly remarkable boulder, known as Thompson's Rock. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Sharp's Folly - an 18th century round tower in the hamlet of Whitton, just south of Rothbury, Northumberland. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Who is this pious lady gazing heavenward from the kirkyard at Pittenweem Parish Church in Fife? It's a noteworthy sculpture on its own merits, but could it be something even more unusual? (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

This cairn sits atop a low mound in upper Glen Lyon, Perth & Kinross. It commemorates local man Robert Campbell, who had a notable - if not exactly glorious - career as an explorer and trader in Canada, becoming the first European to explore the upper reaches of the Yukon River. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

One of Edinburgh's less well-known #HilltopMonuments - views of it being obscured by the mature trees surrounding it - this is Clermiston Tower on Corstorphine Hill in the west of the city. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

In between the weather fronts of Storm Ashley back in Oct last year was the most perfect window of blustery autumn sunshine, so we set out to find Lady Margaret’s Tower, high in the oak wood that covers the peninsula known as Garbh Ard in the Benderloch region of Argyll. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

These three elegant stone-built navigation pillars mark the rocky entrance to a small harbour at Knockbrex on the Solway coast, Dumfries & Galloway. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Standing stone erected at the centre of the hillfort on Dabshead Hill, near Lauder, Scottish Borders. Notable for its location, its re-use of a (probably) prehistoric monument, and for being that rare thing, a #HilltopMonument commemorating a woman. #StandingStoneSunday (Thread 🧵)

Aerial view of Dabshead hill fort. Source: https://www.trimontium.co.uk/archive-item/dabshead-fort-nr-lauder-scottish-borders/

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

It feels appropriate for a time traveller to be granted the privilege of a memorable burial spot. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

This 4m-high tapering column on the rocks at Scurdie Ness on the east coast of Scotland is a navigational aid for mariners that predates the lighthouse beyond by a century or so. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

What are we looking at here? ⬇️

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Follow the arrow. This enormous concrete symbol can be found laid out in the grass adjacent to the ruined Kilbrannan Chapel at Skipness Point on the Kintyre peninsula, Argyll. 1/4

A slightly overgrown arrow shape formed of large concrete slabs laid out on flat coastal grassland pointing out to sea.

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

The Long Stone of Convention. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

The Elie House #obelisk, in parkland at the eastern edge of the coastal town of Elie in the East Neuk of Fife. (short thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

This life-sized figure representing the entombment of Christ is one of a mysterious series of relief carvings to be found at the foot of a sandstone cliff on a steeply wooded bank of the River Clyde, immediately opposite Bothwell Castle in Lanarkshire. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Believed to be the only physical monument associated with the Scottish Traveller community, these quartz stones set into the ground in a field overlooking Loch Fyne in Argyll are known as The Tinkers' Heart. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Monument to the poet Duncan Ban MacIntyre (1724-1812) sited on a low hill close to where the River Orchy enters Loch Awe, with views to the surrounding mountains of Argyll. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

In photographs, the Wemyss Mausoleum in the grounds of Gosford House, East Lothian, had always looked to me a little unsatisfying, maybe even a bit ugly, with its grand pyramid stuck onto the square building beneath, but.... (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Obelisk, c.1860. Sited on 'The Mount' in the deer park at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

A reminder that longer, warmer days are ahead. Photo of Keillor Pictish symbol stone, Angus, taken at 9.30 pm, 4 June 2022. #StandingStoneSunday

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Robert Nicoll’s monument, near Bankfoot, Perthshire. Quite the memorial to a young man who experienced poverty throughout his life and died a month short of his 24th birthday. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Boxing Day walk to the folly in Folly Wood, Nemphlar, South Lanarkshire.

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

A new home for this micro-blog. Hope to copy the archive across but in the meantime, this Google Map currently has details of all 184 locations I've posted about to date, with links to the relevant threads on Twitter. www.google.com/maps/d/u/2/e...

google.com

Hilltop monuments and other curiosities - Google My Maps

Sites featured on the Twitter microblog @totheobelisk: monuments and other curiosities in high, remote or unexpected places, mostly in Scotland

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

One of Scotland’s unique #HilltopMonuments, McCaig’s Tower: a vast Colosseum-inspired folly which might have been even more impressive had its creator’s heirs not stymied his posthumous plans. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 19/10/2024

Thought to be the earliest monument to Nelson, erected – it is said - on Christmas Day 1805, just weeks after news of his death at Trafalgar that October had reached home shores, this simple stone monument stands on a knoll at the edge of the village of Taynuilt, Argyll & Bute.🧵

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 07/08/2024

Tilted Globe, an artwork by Joe Scott, installed high on the side of Knockan Crag, Assynt, NW Scotland. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 07/08/2024

On a knoll above the old kirk at Inchnadamph at the head of Loch Assynt in NW Scotland is this stone monument erected in 1930 to commemorate the ground-breaking work of a memorably named duo, Peach and Horne. #HilltopMonuments (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 28/06/2024

Monument to a murdered archbishop. James Sharp’s pyramid, Magus Muir, Fife. (🧵 Thread)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 18/04/2024

Blossom only just appearing in northeast Scotland. Photo taken in Forres yesterday. #Spring #trees #obelisk

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 25/02/2024

With their skeletal ribs poking out of the sand, these may look like the remains of a pair of sea creatures, but they're actually the wrecks of two WWII midget subs that lie exposed at low tide on the broad expanse of Aberlady Bay, East Lothian. (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 20/02/2024

What’s that looming over the hedge in this quiet North Edinburgh suburb, between the bungalows and the bowling club? (Thread 🧵)

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Hilltop Monuments @totheobelisk.bsky.social · 17/12/2023

Spotted this cairn on the top of West Mains Hill near Auchterhouse, Angus, whilst in the area back in September. So, of course, I parked-up and made a bee-line up to it! #HilltopMonument (Thread)

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