Tomnaverie

Nearest town:
Ballater (15km WSW)
OS reference:
NJ486035
OS sheet:
37
Latitude:
57° 7' 10.51 N
Longitude:
2° 50' 56.18 W

Images

Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by thelonious

22/01/2022 – Walk over Pressendye to Lazy Well, nice light so we visited Tomnaverie Stone Circle on the way back.

thelonious
thelonious Jan 23, 2022
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by ruskus

From outside the circle, looking across the surface of the recumbent, which seems to ‘exactly’ fit with the hills beyond. You can see a fine grey line floating above the stone in this picture, which demonstrates this.

Image credit: ruskus
ruskus
ruskus Dec 12, 2018
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

Note that the ground falls sharply away at the fenceline to the quarry. Hopefully that’s the end of that ....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 19, 2016
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by Nucleus

Looking roughly southwest across the recumbent
Visited June 2011

Image credit: Uwe Häberle 06/2011
Nucleus
Nucleus Jun 28, 2011
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by Nucleus

Visited June 2011
The recumbent with the Hill of Corrachree behind

Image credit: Uwe Häberle 06/2011
Nucleus
Nucleus Jun 28, 2011
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by summerlands

16 x 20” acrylic on canvas. This was a magical March day, bright and with the promise of spring – just the day to visit such a fantastic spot!

Image credit: Nicki MacRae
summerlands
summerlands May 27, 2011
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by Vicster

I am 5ft nowt and Vicky wanted to use me “for scale” – these RSCs are just HUGE!!

Our first site of the trip and we were not disappointed.

Vicster
Vicster Oct 29, 2008
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by greywether

The E half (roughly) of the circle.

The outer stones are the circle stones; the inner stones belong to the ring cairn.

greywether
greywether Mar 23, 2005
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by Moth

The beauty of the (restored, I believe) circle should not be overlooked, despite the ravages of the quarrypeople....

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Aug 30, 2003
Image of Tomnaverie (Stone Circle) by Moth

Even the encroaching darkness can’t quite hide the obscenity of the quarry

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Aug 30, 2003

Articles

Tomnaverie

Music To Create Homecoming Legacy In Aberdeenshire

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Aug 29, 2009

A renowned musician has written an iconic composition which will be the basis for a lasting Homecoming legacy in the North-East.

Fiddler Paul Anderson was commisioned by Aberdeenshire Council to compose a piece of music and created Land Of Standing Stones to celebrate Homecoming Scotland.

The piece was inspired by Aberdeenshire’s dramatic natural scenery and in particular the large concentration of standing stones which are a significant feature of the local environment.

The work was played at a ceremony at Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle near Inverurie on Tuesday afternoon.

Composer Paul Anderson said he wrote the piece at the Tomnaverie Stone Circle near Tarland as it is a place he often goes to compose music.

He said “The title of the piece was partly inspired by it being composed as Tomnaverie, but its more to do with it being representative of the whole of the North-East. I believe we have one of the greatest concentrations of standing stones and stone circles in the world and so Land of the Standing Stones seemed very appropriate as a title.”

Turriff Advertiser, Inverurie and Ellon editions also.

Friday 28th August No. 4847

The report goes onto to say background stuff and how local musical organisataions can be become involved. I have a recieved a copy of the invite so if you know of anybody wanting to contribute let me know in the comments posts. I’ll pass it on.

For further information:

aberdeenshirearts.org.uk/landofthestandingstones

(slightly easier listening than Mr Birtwhistle but beware some of it is Trad Scots........listen to often and a woolly jumper appears from nowhere!!)

Tomnaverie

hamish
hamish Jun 30, 2008

What can I say, easy access, beautifully restored site. What a setting,you can see for miles,when I was there you could see Dark Lochnagar.What more could you want.

Tomnaverie

Jane
Jane Jul 30, 2006

High up on a raise and viciously quarried right up the edge, this lovely place seems to teeter like a potential suicide at Beachy Head.

It has been recently restored and now boasts roadsigns, a car park, some picnic tables and a well constructed, unobstrusive path suitable for wheelchairs. Historic Scotland wants this one on the map! And why not? I just wish they’d do more like this and show that people really do care for our ancient monuments instead of them being an embarrassment, like Old Keig. The views are spectacular from the little platform and the sky seems very big.

Tomnaverie

greywether
greywether Mar 23, 2005

After its restoration, this is now a rather good recumbent stone circle. Quite a lot of the internal ring cairn is now visible.

This is another one I haven’t seen for 18 years. Before restoration (see photo), the flankers had fallen but otherwise it looked ok.

The circle lies at the W edge of the distribution of RSCs. It also has the most westerly orientation of the recumbent (235 degrees).

Access. A Historic Scotland site with all the usual car parking and picnic tables. No obstacles between the car park and the site.

Visited 20 March 2005

Tomnaverie

pure joy
pure joy Nov 26, 2002

Tomenaverie (22.8.2002)

I’m not saying that it’s good that the quarry has eaten into and messed up this site, but it didn’t seem it was as bad as I had expected. Maybe I had just set myself up for the worst, in order to feel good. But it was yet another ancient site that was fascinatingly different to the others. After King Arthur’s Round Table all chopped up by roads, Mayburgh aloofly overlooking the aforementioned site, Long Meg and her Daughters showing what big site looks like, and The Cairns of Clava complex in a sexy woodland glade, this is on the top of a hill with fantastic (if rain soddened) views all around.

Aubrey Burl in his 1995 book, ‘A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany’ calls the circle ‘a wreck’, and says that Tomenaverie means ‘the hill of worship’.

PS – Some sort of restoration project was still going on.......i.e over a year since the fieldnote below......

Tomnaverie

a23
a23 Aug 26, 2001

Heading north 6 miles out of Aboyne brings you to this site – turn L into a parking area beside the stones. There’s a quarry behind the stones which has encroached very near the circle itself – there was info about a restoration project at the site, so perhaps the balance will be addressed! Most of the uprights are toppled (and some disappeared into the quarry), leaving an impressive recumbent and her flankers, nicely bracketing Benachie in the distance. This is a difficult site to get a “feel” for with the desolation/destruction around, but it’s got a lot to offer if you take the time to absorb what’s around you...

Topics

Friends of Grampian Stones AGM 1
BigSweetie
BigSweetie
Sep 2005
Hills an' that 26
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Mar 2005
Show Us The Quarry! 5
TomBo
TomBo
May 2004

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