View source for Cairn

===Europe===
[[File:Carrowkeel Passage Tomb - geograph.org.uk - 1929464.jpg|thumb|One of the cairns at [[Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery]] in Ireland, which covers a [[passage tomb]].]]
The building of cairns for various purposes goes back into [[prehistory]] in [[Eurasia]], ranging in size from small rock sculptures to substantial human-made hills of stone, some built on top of larger, natural hills.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last1=Kay |first1=Mike |author2=((The Frederick County Forestry Board)) |title=Building of cairns has long history |url=https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/building-of-cairns-has-long-history/article_f6753a77-b84a-5c69-b851-32d5e76f4dc5.html |access-date=2022-09-20 |work=The Frederick News-Post |date=17 January 2016 |language=en}}</ref> The human made hills are often relatively massive [[Bronze Age]] or earlier structures which, like [[Kistvaen|kistvaens]] and [[dolmen]]s, frequently contain burials. They are comparable to [[tumuli]] ([[kurgan]]s), but of stone construction instead of [[Earthworks (engineering)|earthworks]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua J. |title=Clava Cairns |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Clava_Cairns/ |access-date=2022-09-20 |website=World History Encyclopedia |date=21 October 2012 |language=en}}</ref> ''Cairn'' originally could more broadly refer to types of hills and natural stone piles, but today is used exclusively for artificial ones.
[[File:Gavrinis cairn.jpg|thumb|A cairn of the [[Neolithic]]-era [[passage tomb]] on [[Gavrinis]] island, [[Brittany]]]]

==== Ireland and Britain ====

The word ''cairn'' derives from [[Irish language|Irish]] (with the same meaning), which is essentially the same as the corresponding words in other native [[Celtic language]]s of [[Ireland]], [[Brittany]] and [[Great Britain|Britain]], including [[Welsh language|Welsh]] {{lang|cy|carn}} (and {{lang|cy|carnedd}}), [[Breton language|Breton]] {{lang|br|karn}}, [[Irish language|Irish]] {{lang|ga|carn}}, and [[Cornish language|Cornish]] {{lang|kw|karn}} or {{lang|kw|carn}}.<ref name=":0" /> Cornwall ({{lang|kw|Kernow}}) itself may actually be named after the cairns that dot its landscape, such as Cornwall's highest point, [[Brown Willy Cairns|Brown Willy Summit Cairn]], a 5&nbsp;m (16&nbsp;ft) high and 24&nbsp;m (79&nbsp;ft) diameter mound atop [[Brown Willy]] hill in [[Bodmin Moor]], an area with many ancient cairns. 

Burial cairns and other [[megalith]]s are the subject of legends and folklore throughout Ireland and Britain. In Ireland, it is traditional to carry a stone up from the bottom of a hill to place on a cairn at its top. In such a fashion, cairns would grow ever larger. An old Scottish Gaelic blessing is {{lang|gd|Cuiridh mi clach air do chàrn}}, "I'll put a stone on your cairn".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cairns of Scotland |url=https://www.scotland.com/blog/cairns-of-scotland/ |access-date=2022-09-20 |website=Scotland.com |language=en-US}}</ref> In Highland folklore it is recounted that before Highland clans fought in a battle, each man would place a stone in a pile. Those who survived the battle returned and removed a stone from the pile. The stones that remained were built into a cairn to honour the dead.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} 

Cairns in the region were also put to vital practical use. For example, [[Dún Aonghasa]], an all-stone [[Iron Age]] Irish [[hill fort]] on [[Inishmore]] in the [[Aran Islands]], is still surrounded by small cairns and strategically placed jutting rocks, used collectively as an alternative to [[Defensive wall|defensive earthworks]] because of the [[karst]] landscape's lack of soil.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} 

In February 2020, ancient cairns dated back to 4,500 year-old used to bury the leaders or chieftains of [[Neolithic]] tribes people were revealed in the Cwmcelyn in [[Blaenau Gwent]] by the Aberystruth Archaeological Society.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Smith|first=Lewis|date=2020-03-29|title=The new Neolithic site that's been discovered in Blaenau Gwent|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/new-neolithic-site-thats-been-17986546|access-date=2020-09-09|website=WalesOnline}}</ref>{{clear|left}}

==== Scandinavia and Iceland ====
[[File:Maeve's Grave - geograph.org.uk - 254449.jpg|thumb|The biggest cairn in Ireland, [[Maeve's Cairn]] on [[Knocknarea]].]]
In [[Scandinavia]], cairns have been used for centuries as trail and sea marks, among other purposes, the most notable being the [[Three-Country Cairn]]. In [[Iceland]], cairns were often used as markers along the numerous single-file roads or paths that crisscrossed the island; many of these ancient cairns are still standing, although the paths have disappeared. In [[Norse Greenland]], cairns were used as a hunting implement, a game-driving "lane", used to direct reindeer towards a [[game jump]].<ref>Arneborg 2004{{fcn|date=April 2024}}</ref>{{fcn|date=April 2024}}

==== Greece and the Balkans ====
[[File:Corda de Resciesa Mont de dite Plose Putia Odles Gherdëina.jpg|thumb|alt=Cairn out of porphyr rocks on the alpine pasture Resciesa in Gherdëina, an Unesco World Heritage.|Cairn out of [[Porphyry (geology)|porphyr rocks]] on the alpine pasture Resciesa in [[Val Gardena|Gherdëina]], an Unesco World Heritage.]]
In the mythology of ancient Greece, cairns were associated with [[Hermes]], the god of overland travel.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=Jessica |editor1=Gabriel Cooney |editor2=Bernard Gilhooly |editor3=Niamh Kelly |editor4=Sol Mallía-Guest |title=Cultures of stone: An interdisciplinary approach to the materiality of stone |date=2020 |publisher=Sidestone Press |location=Leiden |isbn=978-90-8890-893-4 |pages=261–274 |chapter=All of a Heap: Hermes and the stone cairn in Greek antiquity|url=https://www.academia.edu/43289833}}</ref> According to one legend, Hermes was put on trial by [[Hera]] for slaying her favorite servant, the monster [[Argus Panoptes|Argus]]. All of the other gods acted as a jury, and as a way of declaring their verdict they were given pebbles, and told to throw them at whichever person they deemed to be in the right, Hermes or Hera. Hermes argued so skillfully that he ended up buried under a heap of pebbles, and this was the first cairn.
In [[Croatia]], in areas of ancient [[Dalmatia]], such as [[Herzegovina]] and the [[Krajina]], they are known as ''gromila''.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

==== Portugal ====
In Portugal, a cairn is called a {{lang|pt|moledro}}. In a legend the {{lang|pt|moledros}} are enchanted soldiers, and if one stone is taken from the pile and put under a pillow, in the morning a soldier will appear for a brief moment, then will change back to a stone and magically return to the pile.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Genética e a Teoria da Continuidade Paleolítica aplicada à Lenda da Fundação de Portugal e Escócia Apenas Livros|year=2008|isbn=978-989-618-180-2|url=http://www.continuitas.org/texts/morais_genetica.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725195132/http://www.continuitas.org/texts/morais_genetica.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-25 |url-status=live|language=pt}}</ref> The cairns that mark the place where someone died or cover the graves alongside the roads where in the past people were buried are called {{lang|pt|Fiéis de Deus}}. The same name given to the stones was given to the dead whose identity was unknown.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoUyAQAAMAAJ&q=Diccionario+da+lingua+portugueza:+recopilado+dos+vocabularios+impressos |title=Diccionario da lingua portugueza: recopilado dos vocabularios impressos até agora, e nesta segunda edição novamente emendado, e muito accrescentado|volume=2 |page=31 |access-date=2013-05-30|year=1813 |last1=Silva |first1=António de Morais |language=pt}}</ref>