Burn o' Vat

The Burn o’ Vat is a mountain stream in Deeside, Scotland, rising on Culblean Hill and flowing into Loch Kinord.

[1] Around 16,000 years ago, the area surrounding the Burn o’ Vat was covered by a glacial ice sheet.

This spiralling motion caused the bed underneath the rock to erode over a long period of time, creating a feature known as a pothole.

Around 13,500 years ago the volume of meltwater decreased to such a level that the stream began to deposit more than it was eroding.

[2] In fact, this is not true,[3] with the cave instead being used as a hiding place for Patrick Gilroy Macgregor, an outlaw renowned for his exploits in Deeside during the 17th century and a possible relative of Rob Roy.