Walks | North-East
Tap O'Noth
Start: Car Park just North of Rhynie off the Cabarach road
Description: Walk up hill to one of the highest Pictish hill-forts in Britain
OS Map: #37, Strathdon & Alford
Multimap: Online Map
The Tap O'Noth is distinctive for it's flat top. The flatness is caused by the walls of what was once a hill fort, the second highest hill fort in the UK (563 metres). Seen from the road just east of Kennethmont, it dominates the area. From the Cabrach road the hill seems to become much taller. It sits further behind the hills seen from the main A97 Huntly - Alford road than first perceived.
The car park is reached by taking the A941 Elgin road up the right hand side of the church and play park in Rhynie. About two miles up the road is a sign for the car park. Follow a very narrow tarred road for about 400 yards, and the car park is on the left.
The hill can seem a fair bit away from the car park, but in reality, the location of the car park has helped your climb by taking you nearly half way up! Leaving your car, continue up the track, over the gate (watch out for the bull) and up the side of the field through the sparse trees. Cross the style and follow a well beaten path to the left through the gorse. The path continues to the corner of the field, where it turns sharp right following a land rover track, and begins the climb of the hill.
Once the climb starts, it gets steep pretty quickly. About 600 yards or so on, a smaller footpath heads of to the right, and heads directly up the hill. Alternatively, follow the land rover track for a more gentle route. Near the top the footpath regains the land rover track for the final curve round the summit.
The summit itself is in a large bowl created by the remain of the fort walls. The wall can be seen curving right round the whole summit srea. A number of pits have been excavated out of the walls where archaeologists have tried to learn more about these hill forts. There's a trig point on the Northern side of the fort, near the remains of a concrete bunker, definitley not of Pictish origin! Parts of the fort walls are clearly vitrified, fused together by extreme heat.
Out to the West a clear day offers up a view of Benn Rinnes, and eventually the Cairngorms. North is The Knock,and far away the Sutherland hills. South is the Deeside hills, including Lochnagar and Mount Keen. To the East is the Bennachie range, the the Dunnydeer hill fort, the Foundland hill and eventually Aberdeen. At the foot of the hill is the village of Rhynie. The nearby Souie Hill is the Western end of the Gordon Way, that extends right over the Bennachie range. Due to it's easy accessibility (a landrover track runs the whole way up) and steep side, Tap O' Noth is popular with hang gliders. I timed it lucky on a day where three were up to take advantage of a very fine February afternoon.