Cairn building is a surprisingly meditative experience that can bring you closer with the earth and community. You can make a traditional rock pile or a creative stack to help you focus on balance, permanence and harmony.
Throughout history, different cultures have used cairns in many ways. They may have been made to mark a route, to indicate a food source, or to warn of danger. In North America, cairns were also made to serve as burial sites for Native American peoples, a practice known as inukshuk (the plural is inuksuit).
The word cairn derives from a Gaelic word that means “heaps or heaps of stones”. It is usually built as a hill. They range in size from small rock sculptures to large man-made hills of stone, some of which are comparable to kistvaens and dolmens but built of stone rather than ephemeral earthworks.
Hikers, in particular, have a long and varied use for cairns. click for source Cairns are used to guide hikers from the trailhead to their starting point after a long and tiring day of hiking. They can also be used to help them find a way through remote wilderness areas.
A well-placed, properly-marked cairn may save lives by guiding a group of lost hikers. Some people, however, argue that cairns don’t belong in nature and violate the Leave No Trace principle.