Beacon Fell Pyramid Cairn

Beacon Fell Pyramid Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Unsurprisingly the acorn cairn had collapsed when I went up to Beacon fell today to have a look. I don't imagine it was standing for long as it was quite precarious. As the hard work of carrying all the stone was already done I thought it best to make another one, more robust this time in the hope that it will remain standing for longer. The rangers told me that people regularly kick down the dry stone walls on the fell, so who knows how long this will remain standing.

Obviously this sort of cairn is considerably easier to build than the ones with a thin base and a wider body, but if I want it to withstand some of the abuse that kids will inevitably give it (one kid started kicking it whilst I was standing there taking photos), and without resorting to concrete or some other artificial means (which is an anthema to me) then a pyramid it had to be. The stone being quite unshapely and difficult to construct also meant this was the best option. Once again I am left with considerable respect for Andy Goldsworthy as I learn quite how difficult his carins built with uneven stone are to make.

What surprised me most of all was the luck of guessing how wide the base needed to be and then finding that I all the stone that remained from the acorn cairn was exactly the amount of stone that I needed to complete it.


It is situated in the trees next to the Sheepfold car park a little bit up the hill from the visitor centre.