Cook's Cairn

Sitting on the high, peat-scarred plateau between Glen Livet and Glen Fiddich, this Graham is a study in remote moorland character. The terrain is often pathless and demanding, leading to a summit marked by its namesake stone structure. It serves as a lonely, rewarding viewpoint looking across the rolling hills of the northeast Highlands.

• •The name is widely attributed to a 19th-century Ordnance Survey employee named Mr. Cook, who was responsible for the primary triangulation of this area and allegedly built the original summit cairn.
• •The summit provides an excellent vantage point to view the isolated, whale-backed profile of Ben Rinnes to the north and the sprawling, high-altitude plateaus of Ben Avon in the Cairngorms to the south.
• •The surrounding moorland was historically famous for illicit whisky distilling, with the remote burns and deep folds of the hills providing concealment for smugglers operating far from the reach of excise officers in Glen Livet.
• •Navigating the featureless, undulating plateaus in low cloud can be so disorienting that walkers may find themselves wishing Mr. Cook had been significantly more prolific with his cairn-building on the approach.