Tap o' Noth

We went for a walk up Tap o' Noth today which is in Aberdeenshire. It is a hill that has Scotland's second highest hill fort at the top. Its dated around 2000bc. The stone walls show signs if vitrification where the stones have been melted together through intense burning. Archeologists think this was done deliberately to strengthen the walls. You have to look pretty closely to see this but it is there in a number of places. There is evidence of 800 dwellings around the hill dating up to 800ad. Theres also a few pictish standing stones in the area that I'll have to check out some other time. The paths were pretty easy going and dry for the most part apart from two very muddy sections where water was crossing the path and turned it into a bit of a mud bath. On the way up there was wild raspberries growing everywhere and as we went further up this changed to blaeberries which were nice to eat as we walked. Our son walked about two thirds of the way up before he started to get tired and went on my shoulders.