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Local legend has it that the Scottish outlaw Rob Roy Macgregor hid in the Burn o Vat from the authorities. It is more likely that this was in fact the 17th century Deeside outlaw Patrick Gilroy Macgregor. Around 16,000 years ago, the Burn O'Vat was covered by a glacial ice sheet. As the area warmed around 14 000 years ago, the ice sheet began to melt, resulting in a torrent of meltwater that carried with it debris previously caught up in the glacial ice. This debris, consisting of rocks and boulders, is thought likely to be the most important component of the formation of Burn O'Vat. It is thought that a rock from the meltwater stream lodged in a small hollow on the river bed, causing the meltwater to flow around it in a spiralling motion. 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
