Mountain heart of ice
Casts her cold dead spell tightly
Unwoven by Spring
A cairn field high above Loch Garry, marking the passage of the thousands who visit the Scottish Highlands each year, travelling through the Cairngorms on this high pass. Cairn etiquette demands that you should always add to a cairn as you pass by, and if you add the highest stone you can claim the luck of the cairn. This ensures its survival, despite winters best attempts to sweep the earth clean each year. Some stone cairns in Britains hills are very ancient indeed, marking the paths and passes used by our ancestors for thousands of years. Routes for moving cattle and the dead. Places where the veil between life and death feels thin, and where human feet have touched the skin of the earth, many many times over. Walk softly in these places.
You can see some more cold places at Cees weekly challenge
breathofgreenair 
Pingback: Cee’s Weekly Wrap Up – February 20, 2016 and WPC: Seasons | Cee's Photography
Pingback: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Things That are Smooth | Cee's Photography
Pingback: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Things That are Smooth | Cee's Photography
Great view. I needed another cup of coffee to warm up after looking at it.
That’s funny Don…..it certainly wasn’t a spot to take off layers! I have invested in a great pair of gloves with special finger tips which work on touch screens…..no need to remove even a glove😊
Stunning view. 🙂 —- Suzanne Joshi
Many thanks, it’s a particularly stunning route up through the Cairngorm Mountains 🙂
Lovely post. I found you through Sue Vincent’s reblog and am very glad I did.
Thanks Mary, and thanks to Sue too! Very nice to have you visit 🙂
Pingback: Ice Heart | oshriradhekrishnabole
Reblogged this on Daily Echo.
I, too, enjoy walking the old drovers’ roads. They lead you so far from the hustle and pace of modern life and yes, there is truly history in the wind. Very interesting – I did not know the custom of adding to the cairns, though how I missed out on it I don’t know. Thank you.
My pleasure Frederick, and now you can join in each time you pass one😊✨
Stunning image, Seonaid … the warmth of the sun on the cold snow and ice.
Thanks Laura, the light was just so beautiful that day😊
So beautiful!
Thanks Fi, water and mountains always make such a great combination😊
Oh I love that … Walk softly I these places
Thanks Julie, it’s what I like to do, it allows the atmosphere to soak into my awareness. I know some people like to walk and talk, but I prefer quietness😊
Beautiful and impressive, engorged with memories…
Many thanks Marion💕
I can hear the cold winds blowing across the land and feel the crisp freshness of the air 🙂
Yes keep your winter woollens pulled on tightly, the cold is fierce up here on the mountain passes✨😆✨
Oh yes indeed!! More cold coming your way too I believe 🙂 Send me down some snow 😉
It’s frozen and frosty this morning with a clear blue sky…..that’s my perfect winter day!
Oh that sounds lovely! Temps dropped down here but I don’t think we’ll have a significant frost. It’s going to cloud over and rain again tomorrow! I would have quite liked to take the kids up to the London Wetlands Centre at Barnes on Sunday as they’re having a puddle jumping competition 😀 Already busy though. Maybe I should just go and puddle jump anyway for the sheer joy of it 😉
I think you definitely should!!
I got my wheelchair stuck in a muddy puddle on a grass path today 😉 Much hilarity ensued!
Such a beautiful entry for this week’s cold theme. Thanks for playing.
My pleasure….although I have to confess I had written and posted before I found your weekly theme😊Perfect timing really, and always happy to play along!
Love the history of the cairns, but yes that is such a cold place in winter.
Cairns always seem like silent witnesses to me…
That’s a lovely way of describing them…..yes watching the passage of many feet! They would, I’m sure, have a tale or two to tell😊
How many times have you added a stone?
Many times Gilly…..4 or more times a year every year of my life since I was about 7 years old!!
Of course, just as I expected.
Mankind is only beginning to perceive who walked before him. I find the cairn etiquette fascinating, and does it still truly exist? I could see my kids, when they were young, trying to knock over the towers of rocks… heck, even my granddaughters today probably would be more interested in knocking them over than adding to them. Although, in thinking about it, each generation does add to these towers in their own way. BEAUTIFUL!! I LOVE your traditions.
Yes the cairn tradition still holds true up in the high wild places….they mark the safe passes through the mountains, and give good navigation points even nowadays 😊 It would be considered an act of vandalism to knock them over!!
Traces of the busy hands of our ancestors. Cold and shivery indeed.
Definitely a place to stay well wrapped up…and to keep moving!!
This is beautiful! ✨✨✨✨✨
Thanks Trini, the mountains change so much with the passing seasons….each one with its own beauty 🙂
Oh, yes. I love that. Just like the ocean too 💖😊
So true💕✨💕
Your photo conveys the feel of this place well. What a beautiful location. The distant hills frame every so nicely. A magical place steeped in and influenced by many. Thanks for bringing us along. D
Thanks David, it’s rather stark and definitely cold at this time of year, but later soft grass and wild flowers will burst through….and then in late summer the hills turn purple with heather 🙂
I love to walk on these old drove roads, there is such a feel of history beneath my feet!