Burn o' Vat

Burn o' Vat is a mountain stream in Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, rising on Culblean Hill and flowing into Loch Kinord, named for a distinctive feature along its course known as the Vat, a glacially formed pothole. The pothole formed roughly 16,000 years ago under ice sheets that once covered the region, when meltwater beginning around 14,000 years ago spiraled around trapped rocks and boulders to carve a bowl-shaped hollow measuring 18 meters across and 13 meters high from present ground level, with sediment extending several meters deeper; about 12,000 years ago a waterfall undercutting the surrounding rock exposed the hollow's entrance. Local folklore once linked the cave behind the waterfall to the outlaw Rob Roy, though it more likely sheltered Patrick Gilroy Macgregor, a seventeenth-century Deeside outlaw and possible Rob Roy relative, and the site is now a popular tourist destination with walking trails and a four-star visitor center.