Standing stones
in Aberdeenshire.

Circles of the recumbent stone.

North-east Scotland has a kind of stone circle found nowhere else. In a recumbent circle, one huge stone lies on its side between two tall uprights, usually on the south-west of the ring, where the moon would have been seen setting. Aberdeenshire has dozens of them, on hilltops, in woods and even in a kirkyard. Some were raised four thousand years ago or more. Most are a short walk from a quiet road, and they're at their most atmospheric at dusk.