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Cairn making can be a surprisingly relaxing activity Visit Website that will bring you closer together with your community and the Earth. 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, Native American peoples also used cairns as burial sites, a practice called inukshuk.
The word cairn is derived from a Gaelic phrase that means “heaps of stones”. They are typically built in the shape of 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.
Cairns serve many purposes, and are particularly useful to hikers. Cairns can be used by hikers to return to the trailhead at the end of a long day of hiking or to help them find their way in remote wilderness areas.
A well-placed, properly-marked cairn may save lives by guiding a group of lost hikers. Some people claim that cairns do not belong in the environment and violate Leave No Trace principles.