Nice to hear from you again Captain but I fear you have demoted the poor guy as he is a Major-General!

Hey Guys, what's a "trig point"? (Sorry, i can't read the plaque, not even with my magnifying glass... I'd like to know what it says.). I assume it is just a base survey point.

A brief explanation of trigpoints
Triangulation Pillars - measuring shape

Trigpoints are the common name for "triangulation pillars". These are concrete pillars, about 4' tall, which were used by the Ordnance Survey in order to determine the exact shape of the country. They are generally located on the highest bit of ground in the area, so that there is a direct line of sight from one to the next. By sitting a theodolite (an accurate compass built into a telescope) on the top of the pillar, accurate bearings to nearby trigpoints could be taken. This process is called "triangulation".

A major project to map out the shape of Great Britain began in 1936. The network of triangulation pillars, with accurately known positions, led to the excellent OS maps which we enjoy today. The coordinate system used on these maps is known as the "National Grid", and it is essential that you are familiar with this system if you are to get the most of OS maps, or this website. The OS provide an introduction to the National Grid on their website.

TrigpointingUK

I have to confess to almost getting hooked onto chasing these things, then came to my senses - a bit like I did with geocaching

I did go and look for a few, not the obvious ones like the big white pillars similar to the above, but the survey bolts and the like, that can be hidden away or completely lost in the undergrowth. It can be fun trying to decipher the handmade sketches of the earlier surveyors that reported the positions, as they appear to be very accurate and precise, then your GPS tells you otherwise, or that the thing is lost.

In the early days of GPS, when the signal was deliberately interfered with to given random errors, the trig points were handy to use as references to see just how far out the signal was in reality.

Here stood Milton Head, the birthplace of Major-General William Roy, 4th May 1726 - 30th June 1790, from whose military map of Scotland made in 1747 - 1755 grew the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain.

While the Captain's visit, and the aerial view show the place to be clear and easy to find today, a visitor in 2000 wrote "Thus reads the on-trig plaque explaining possibly the only example of a commemorative/sentimental spot height. All very nice. Once you find it. Sure, the map gives "Birthplace of General Roy (site of)" as a clue, but the trig symbol is camouflaged into oblivion by a guddle of tracks and trees. The General would have had someone court-martialed - or at least cartographically-marshalled - for this."

Thank you very much Apollo (and Captain Brittles)... all very interesting stuff. Goodness, I'd never heard of this fellow Roy. A very easy-to-understand explanation of what a "trig point" is. I've stood beside dozens of these trig points in Scotland, and while i knew they had something to do with surveying, I was never aware of just what it was.

Cheers Cap'n. Didn't think the photo quality was that bad myself.
A late friend of mine discovered what appeared to be a military trig pillar while surveying the old AA Practise Camp at Burrowhead in Dumfries and Galloway. The only photo I have is printed onto copy paper, so I'm not sure if it would scan legibly.
I think it was the only one he had ever seen on this side of the border, but when he died in 2005 the UK Fortifications Club merged with the Pillbox Study Group, and I never did hear any more about it.

Aren't all trig points, placed by Ordnance Survey, military?

At heart at least

Quoted from The Fox

Nice to hear from you again Captain but I fear you have demoted the poor guy as he is a Major-General!

I don't think he made major general till long after his survey of Scotland was finished, the direction signs state General Roy Memorial but it was a titular rank anyway I'm sure.
I wonder how he felt when his teams were doing the area around Miltonhead, it may well be one of the most accurate parts of the entire survey!

Roy is a great hero of mine and I can say that the mapping of the area I study local history of whilst containing some positioning  errors and misnaming of some farms it more than made up for that by revealing place names that no longer exist and had been forgotten by history.
It was a pleasure to pay my respects.

His story regarding rank is quite interesting in itself:

William Roy was born in Carluke, Lanarkshire, on the 4th of May 1726 and was educated in Carluke and Lanark. His extraordinary cartographic skills are thought to be the result of an apprenticeship as a civilian draughtsman in the Board of Ordnance engineer establishment, employed in surveying roads for the Post 0ffice mails.

In 1747, following the Scottish rebellion of 1745, he joined a team led by Lieutenant Colonel David Watson, currently the Deputy Quartermaster General for North Britain, encamped at Fort Augustus, midway between Inverness and Fort William, at the southern end of Loch Ness. Their objective was to survey and map the Scottish Highlands, thus permitting a series of camps to be developed at salient points, with a network of roads and tracks connecting them. At this point, Roy appears to have had no military status whatsoever, but he clearly adapted quickly to this work.

At that time, military engineers did not carry officer rank and were considered inferior to the officers of regiments of the line. Their understandable grievance was put by the Board of Ordnance direct to the Duke of Cumberland, as head of the army. They petitioned him to intercede with the King, but it took seven years before he was able to carry the point and only on the 14th of May 1757 were they given military ranks as well as their engineer titles.

William Roy, who had been appointed a Practitioner Engineer in December 1755, finally became an Ensign in May 1757, as did many of his contemporaries. More senior engineers were given military ranks commensurate with their engineering responsibilities. However, these military ranks were granted in regiments of the line, and Roy was commissioned into the 53rd Foot, despite the fact that he continued as a Practitioner Engineer as before. This split responsibility inevitably led to a conflict of interests and was not a satisfactory situation.

When he later became a Major General, on the general staff of the War Office, he was also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Engineers and in command of the first military company established specifically for the purpose of military surveying.

In June 1756, with a threat of invasion by the French, Roy and others were appointed to "up-date" the maps covering the southern counties of England, mainly in Kent and Sussex, and the access roads to London. The invasion never came.

In 1765, he was appointed by Royal Warrant to be Surveyor General of Coasts and the Engineer responsible for making and directing military surveys in Britain, in addition to his appointment as a Deputy Quartermaster-General. By now his military rank was Lieutenant Colonel.

The rest of his story can be had from Royal Engineers Museum site.