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| Name: | Cairn William |
| Hill number: | 1521 |
| Height: | 448m / 1470ft |
| RHB Section: | 21B: Fraserburgh to the Dee Valley |
| County/UA: | Aberdeenshire |
| Catchment: | Don (Aberdeen) |
| Class: | Marilyn, Hump, Tump (400-499m), Yeaman (Ma,Hu,Tu,4,Y) |
| Grid ref: | NJ 65618 16809 |
| Summit feature: | rock within 1m of trig point |
| Drop: | 258m |
| Col: | 190m NJ640125  |
| OS map sheet(s): | (1:50k) 38 (1:25k) OL59E OL62E 405E 420E |
| Survey: | obvious summit |
| Change log: | show changes for this hill entry |
| GPS data: | show GPS entries for this hill |
N.B. Some hill summits are on private property or on land where there is no public right of way. Permission should be sought from the landowner where access to a hill summit is through private land(*).
*For information about access rights in Scotland see the ScotWays website.
Please report via the contact page any logs you see below which describe or encourage acts of trespass. Please quote the hill number and hill name.
| Logged Descriptions (logged by 222 users, only the latest 50 shown - Show all) | By | Date of Ascent |
| DotMP | 09/01/2024 | |
| Parked at end of track just North of Pitmunie. Up track to col then up mountain bike uphill to Pitfichie Hill. Back to col then up MTB zigzags to Cairn William summit. Followed MTB trail across summit and down to Horseman's Stone then back around track to Pitmunie. 6 miles, 3hrs. Only met 1 mountain biker. | JulieB | 04/10/2023 |
| Parked at start of track on road south of the hill by Pitmunie. Good paths and meandering cycle tracks all the way up. Solo. | Dangerous Dave | 03/10/2023 |
| scott duncan | 26/07/2023 | |
| Parked at an area NJ663153. Followed a fairly overgrown track through the trees to meet a main forest road at NJ658159. Took the track NE at NJ664161 then up the MTB zigzags to the summit (not recommended on a busy weekend with plenty of bikes coming down the way). | nathan79 | 12/07/2023 |
| Parked to SSE. Using Emtb took grassy trail to begin with which was wet in places despite the prolonged dry weather. Then tracks round to West side of hill, then Pitfinchie red climb mtb trail to summit. Devils Staircase disappointing on the way down, promises much - never really gets going. Seems more like an mtb ascent route. | PeteF | 25/06/2023 |
| As per JGC. Probably room for 2 or 3 cars. | curlebd | 27/05/2023 |
| highlandrock | 10/04/2023 | |
| ketzster | 13/03/2023 | |
| Matt | 09/03/2023 | |
| Crawford Lindsay | 27/02/2023 | |
| wintergreen | 27/02/2023 | |
| Jenn | 16/01/2023 | |
| booboowalking | 13/11/2022 | |
| NickF | 10/10/2022 | |
| From car park for mb trails, paths and tracks all the way. | BLACKHILL | 20/09/2022 |
| bobhem25 | 19/05/2022 | |
| Parked at NJ663184 (room for 1 vehicle). Start of track behind fallen tree. | JGC | 01/05/2022 |
| AFD90 | 18/04/2022 | |
| David123 | 18/04/2022 | |
| LesH | 02/04/2022 | |
| Parked off road at NJ663183, took old track S to join forest road, followed that W and S (becoming a track) up to the col between Pitfichie Hill and Cairn William, then zigzag tracks (apparently for bikers) W up to summit of Cairn William, descending same route (1h55m) | kdbennett | 26/02/2022 |
| Andrew Stalker | 20/02/2022 | |
| Parked at track entrance at NJ673178. Forest road heading south closed by high metal fence, but road to NW open. Followed to 'Granite Top Trail' officially closed but perfectly passable. Interminable zigzags to summit but easier than romping through the heather. Back the same way. No bikes due to trails being closed following Storm Arwen. | nicolajane | 27/01/2022 |
| Ben Rinnes | 04/10/2021 | |
| Self and dog. Same route as Gill and summitter. Park at the road entrance NJ 67251781. There is a gate on the forest road to W and anyone driving along to the mast may find themselves locked in. | Invicta14 | 23/09/2021 |
| 1 of 2 Started off from car park to the south east of Tillyfourie Hill. Followed track up to Cairn William before continuing onto Pitfichie Hill. | JasonStark | 28/08/2021 |
| From MTB car park past stone circle following white and red routes. Back via Pitfichie Hill and MTB routes. Only saw one cyclist. With B. 10 mile round trip | slynch | 30/07/2021 |
| tummelv | 14/07/2021 | |
| booboowalking | 18/04/2021 | |
| Continuation of climb of Pitfichie. | Harley John | 17/04/2021 |
| stalky14 | 29/12/2020 | |
| Beautiful sunny day with Phil. First ascent of the day. Cold and blowy on top but stunning views. | sarahk | 22/12/2020 |
| bagger14 | 03/12/2020 | |
| RodMcGovern | 23/11/2020 | |
| From near pt126 to North, track and path all way to top. Only one cyclist met. | willyross | 02/10/2020 |
| lindaross | 02/10/2020 | |
| kanderson | 09/09/2020 | |
| BlackPanther | 16/03/2020 | |
| parked on minor road. mountain bike routes on this way of ascent- so look out ! v quite on my walk. went on to Pittfichie Hill | VerySlowPlodder | 13/03/2020 |
| Parked just before locked gate at 663153 and followed forest track to 661172 then cut across heather and ancient felled area before picking up a zig zag path to the summit. Great views. Cut straight down on return to avoid zig zags. Solo in 2 hours. | bolton | 20/02/2020 |
| After school 10k run again with Graham around the hill on frozen icy tracks with thin snow cover on the shady unmelted north side which made a satisfying crump noise under running shoes. No summit unlike last week, but as this circular path around the hill climbs to 390m its only 50m below the summit its easy option image is a bit misleading as it has 290m of ascent in total. Back in 1 hr 10 with just 20 mins before darkpm at 5.30. | Chris Pearson | 12/02/2020 |
| cmacpherson | 08/02/2020 | |
| andy macp | 08/02/2020 | |
| A 12 km after school run around the hill with Graham the Deputy Head on one of his regular routes. However as we had head torches with us he happily agreed to come back from the western bealach over the top - following the excellent runable smooth granite top trail - no bikers to avoid out on this fine calm afternoon / dusk. The occasional smooth exposures of beautiful granite bedrock reminded me of the slickrock in Utah - another mountain bikers mecca. The long gradual descent zig zags were fun but ate into precious daylight. Torches on just before we reached the bealach with Pitfichie (left for another time),-then easy fast runnable track down and around to car. | Chris Pearson | 05/02/2020 |
| Gill's advice taken (thanks Gill). Parked just past Ord Mill (nice topiary) at a forest road entrance (near pt. 126). West along forest road to the coll between the two hills. Took the MTB path (marked by no-entry sign) up to Cairn William (stepping aside for the cyclists). Returned by the same route then up the more straightforward path to Pitfichie Hill. | summitter | 05/01/2020 |
| Jossker | 04/01/2020 | |
| Lovely day with great views all around, no other hill walkers, 3 MTB’s. 2 of 2 with Pitfichie Hill | PDuncan82 | 12/10/2019 |
| Peterb | 04/10/2019 | |
| From miniscule parking in stubby forest track at NJ663153. Route not recommended, but hard to suggest an alternative - do it anti-clockwise if you have to, that way you'll see the MTBs coming at you. The hill appears to have been turned over to the MTB fraternity, a solitary legacy green FC post with a red arrow each side indicates the original bi-directional ridge-summit footpath, but now the ridge-summit 'path' is a mono-directional 'red' MTB circuit. From parking, a faint path has a couple of level traverses E, before becoming distinct and heading purposefully uphill, objective in view, until it meets forest track - take note for return as no obvious marker sign. Took track, E to NJ664161 and then N up path, which is now a broad 'red' MTB run. From col at NJ661171, ignored 'no entry' sign and headed W up 'red' MTB run - alternative is pathless, purgatorial heather. MTB run meanders about and takes forever to teach the summit trig, but better than the heather. Followed ridge 'path - | Isbjorn | 25/05/2019 |