Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire's Stone Circles – Four Recumbents and Cullerlie

A day by car, from Aberdeen and back.

The route

In Scotland, recumbent stone circles were raised only in the north-east: a ring of standing stones with one great slab laid on its side between two tall flankers, usually on the south-west.

Historic Environment Scotland counts about a hundred of them. This day out from Aberdeen visits four, and one circle that breaks the pattern. It starts by Inverurie, at Loanhead of Daviot and Easter Aquhorthies, then runs south to Midmar, where the circle stands in a kirkyard and lunch is at the Forest Café along the road. The afternoon goes west by Tarland to Tomnaverie, with Lochnagar on its skyline, and comes back by Aboyne and Torphins to Cullerlie, near Garlogie, where eight low boulders ring eight small cairns. From there it's half an hour home.

The day

The stone circles

A loop out of Aberdeen through the farmland of the Garioch and west towards Deeside, from one great stone laid on its side to the next. The morning takes the two circles by Inverurie; lunch is at Midmar, by a circle in a kirkyard, and the afternoon runs out to Tomnaverie, facing Lochnagar, before Cullerlie on the way home. Leave Aberdeen at about nine.

3 hr 12 min at the wheelAbout 98 miles

Loanhead of Daviot Stone Circle
An attraction
It's 45 minutes' drive north-west from Aberdeen, up the A96 to Inverurie and on by the B9001, to Daviot and a small car park by the circle. A cremation platform and cairn seem to have come first, and the ring may have been raised round them about 4,000 years ago; its great recumbent lies split in two. In a low-banked enclosure beside it, digs found the cremated remains of more than 30 people, and at its centre a man who seems to have been clutching a stone pendant.
More about Loanhead of Daviot Stone Circle
17 min by car
Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle
An attraction
Drive 17 minutes to the north end of Inverurie and west up a narrow private road to a car park, then walk 275 metres up a farm track to Easter Aquhorthies, East Aquhorthies to Historic Environment Scotland. About 4,000 years old, it has nine lesser stones of pinkish porphyry, bar one of red jasper, and a red granite recumbent between grey granite flankers, with Bennachie's Mither Tap to the west. Why the recumbent lies to the south-west, nobody knows: a midsummer moon has been suggested, and doubted.
More about Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle
30 min by car
Midmar Stone Circle
An attraction
It's 30 minutes' drive south, by the A96 to Kintore, the B977 past Dunecht and west along the B9119, to Midmar Kirk; park by the kirkyard wall. Here the circle stands among the graves: the kirkyard was extended round it in 1914, and at least one stone was probably moved then. Its two flankers, each 2.5 metres high, were shaped like a pair of great canine teeth, and the recumbent between them weighs about 20 tons. It is a kirkyard first: walk round the graves, not over them.
More about Midmar Stone Circle
About 2 min by car
Forest Café
A café
Two minutes' drive on west are the Treehouse at Midmar and the Forest Café, a countryside café from the people behind Bridge House Café in Ballater and the Pier in Aberdeen. It does brunch, lunch and home bakes, Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4.30pm. Tables can be booked Wednesday to Friday on 01330 830000; on Saturday and Sunday it's walk-in only. None of the circles has a toilet: the café does.
More about Forest Café
28 min by car
Tomnaverie Stone Circle
An attraction
Drive 28 minutes west along the B9119 to Tarland, then south on the Aboyne road to a small car park, 250 metres below the circle by a made path. Lochnagar stands on the skyline. The digs of 1999 and 2000 found cremation pyres first, then a low cairn, and the stones last; with the cairn filling the ring, some archaeologists doubt anyone watched the moon from inside. Beside it is a Cold War bunker, an underground post built in 1960 to report on nuclear attack and used until 1991.
More about Tomnaverie Stone Circle
40 min by car
Cullerlie Stone Circle
The last circle is 40 minutes' drive east by the back roads: down to Aboyne, along the Dee to Kincardine O'Neil, then over by Torphins to the small car park south of Garlogie, and 90 metres along an avenue of trees. Cullerlie breaks the pattern. There is no recumbent, only eight squat boulders round eight small ring cairns, most edged with kerb stones, and several of them held cremated bone. Historic Environment Scotland calls it unusual, possibly a later development of the recumbent circle. Aberdeen is 30 minutes' drive home.

If it rains

Every circle stands in the open, but each is a short walk from its car park, so the day holds in the wet: wear strong shoes for the farm track up to Easter Aquhorthies, rough in places, and make the Forest Café the long, dry stop of the day. For a roof, Castle Fraser, the National Trust for Scotland's tower house near Kemnay, is 21 minutes' drive south of Easter Aquhorthies and 20 minutes on to Midmar; it usually shuts midweek, so check its days first. In low cloud Tomnaverie loses Lochnagar but keeps its circle, its cairn and its Cold War post.

Forest Cafe

Worth a detour

Brandsbutt Symbol Stone
Between Loanhead and Easter Aquhorthies the road runs along Burghmuir Drive, on Inverurie's north-west edge. Just off it, on a footpath between Brankie Road and Gordon Drive, stands the Brandsbutt Stone: a Pictish slab of dark whinstone carved around AD 600 with a crescent and V-rod above a serpent and Z-rod, and an Ogham inscription up one side. Free and open all year; park considerately in the streets beside it.
The Maiden Stone
Four miles south-west of Loanhead, near Chapel of Garioch off the A96, the Maiden Stone is a Pictish cross-slab three metres tall, of pinkish granite, carved some time after AD 700: a cross on one face, a centaur and Pictish symbols on the other. It is covered over in winter, so it can be seen from about April to mid-October. A small free car park is beside it; the detour adds about 10 minutes before Easter Aquhorthies.
Castle Fraser
Castle Fraser, the National Trust for Scotland's great tower house of round towers and turrets near Kemnay, grown round an older Fraser tower, lies between Easter Aquhorthies and Midmar: 21 minutes' drive on, then 20 to Midmar, about 10 minutes more than the direct road. It does not open every day and usually shuts midweek: check its days and tickets first.
Sunhoney Stone Circle
Two minutes short of Midmar, a farm road leaves the B9119 north at Sunhoney Farm for Sunhoney, another recumbent circle: nine stones, a recumbent and its flankers in a clump of trees on a working farm. There is no car park and no sign on the main road: leave the car where the farm's sign says, clear of the yard and its work, and the circle is about 180 metres beyond the house, along the field edge. Keep dogs on a lead, keep clear of any stock, stay on the edge when the field is in crop, and leave the gate as you find it.
Kincardine O'Neil
The road to Cullerlie runs through Kincardine O'Neil, which calls itself the oldest village on Deeside. Stop on its main street for the roofless Auld Kirk, built for a medieval hospital for travellers, and mind the graves round it.