Tucked deep in the woods of Balmoral, the Scottish royal estate beloved by Queen Victoria, lie 11 little-known memorial cairns – including one massive granite pyramid. Built to commemorate royal milestones and loss, they tell a quiet story of love, grief and nation building.

When Queen Victoria first visited Balmoral Castle in rural Aberdeenshire on 8 September 1848, six years after her first visit to Scotland, she took time out to appreciate the woodlands, gardens and rippling mountains.

Perhaps she deeply breathed in the Caledonian pine air. Perhaps a deer stood motionless, caught in her gaze. Certainly, she saw a different future for herself and her husband, Prince Albert, on Deeside in the Highlands. "All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils," she recorded in her diary. Soon after, the baronial estate became a mainstay for the rest of her life – and it remains a sanctuary for the British Royal Family to this day.

There are many stories hidden at Balmoral Castle, but perhaps none so intriguing as that of the estate's secret "pyramids", or memorial cairns. There are 11 of these, strewn almost negligently around the near-50,000-acre estate. The largest is a stone monolith more in keeping with the design of the great dynastic structures of Ancient Egypt than anything Scottish, while the smaller ones are scattered like clues to a greater mystery. And seeking them out – on a hunt akin to an Indiana Jones-type treasure hunt – is a little bit of everyday magic hidden among the Scots pine, firs and hemlocks.

Like many visitors to the Royal Deeside, I'd been to the country's best-known estate before. Located in the eastern Cairngorm mountains, the turreted 167-room castle, ballroom, mews courtyard, sunken garden and thistle-shaped maze are a bonanza for visitors, especially between April and early August when the full grandeur of the castle is open to ticketed visitors. There are around 80 residential properties on the wider estate, too, plus commercial forestry plantations, a hydroelectric dam, facilities for deer stalking and grouse shooting and a golf course.

But following the Covid-19 pandemic, when locals were forced to stay closer to home and making nearby discoveries became the national habit, the unlikely memorials appeared on social media posts like whispered secrets. Balmoral estate is 100 miles from where I live in Edinburgh, so I had lodged them in my mind as a rewarding challenge to track down the next time I was in Aberdeenshire.

Why were these marvels created? According to Ewen Cameron, professor of Scottish history at the University of Edinburgh, most were commissioned by Queen Victoria to commemorate significant events in the lives of her family, including the marriages of her nine children. The cairns commemorate Prince Albert Edward, Princess Alice, Prince Arthur and Princess Beatrice among others, forming a kind of family map across the forested hills.

Plan your trip:

- The Balmoral cairns walk takes around three hours, covering six miles.

- Walk Highlands' easy to follow Balmoral Cairns map gives a step-by-step guide to tracking down eight of the cairns on one continuous circuit. For a shorter walk, follow the Blue Route path, which will take you to five cairns.

- The........

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