Craighead

Nearest town:
Aberdeen (9km NNE)
OS reference:
NO912977
OS sheets:
38, 45
Latitude:
57° 4' 12.97 N
Longitude:
2° 8' 42.54 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Craighead (Stone Circle) by costaexpress

Interesting looking site, unfortunately now totally fenced in and a number of horses grazing there. No obvious way in (with the time I had available) so something for another day

costaexpress
costaexpress Sep 6, 2023
Image of Craighead (Stone Circle) by postman

It’s a good looking site, but a little disappointing to hear about its provenance.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 22, 2022
Image of Craighead (Stone Circle) by postman

Stones got a nose ring, how very modern, that’s its nose right?

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 22, 2022
Image of Craighead (Stone Circle) by postman

The stones have been messed with, that’s straight from the horses mouth.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 22, 2022
Image of Craighead (Stone Circle) by drewbhoy

Taken from near Portlethen Golf Club to the south east.

Image credit: drew/amj
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Dec 14, 2017

Articles

Craighead

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Dec 24, 2017

I parked at Portlethen Golf Course and walked up the track, or skating rink, heading north up School Hill, the other name for Craighead.

It is a strange site and every time I come here I think something different. Three of the stones are probably from the original circle, the tallest of which could well be in its original place. Sadly three others were taken away to become gateposts or had a meeting with a stone crusher. The fourth, more pointy stone, was put up during the mid 1850s. According to the farmer at Auchlee it was a rubbing stone removed from a nearby hill.

A beautiful clear day with some snow. Wonderful!

Visited 14/12/2017.

Craighead

Jane
Jane Jul 30, 2006

Very close to Auchquhorthies & Auld Bourtreebush this enjoys the same sightlines and atmosphere. It has four nice stones on a raised platform but there does seem to be something suspiciously wrong about it. Nevertheless, I liked it and access to it is so easy, it’s worth a look-see.

Craighead

greywether
greywether Apr 1, 2005

An accessible but questionable site.

The stones, in their embanked platform, stand at the four cardinal points. Each has a metal ring embedded in it which, in 1900, held guy ropes to support a flagstaff. It has the air of a reconstructed site about it.

Access. You can park outside it and access to it from the road is along a roped off path which separates you from the horses which now occupy the field.

Visited 14 March 2005

Craighead

Merrick
Merrick Aug 7, 2000

Well, Stonehead is in horse pasture, but here at Craighead we’re in dog pasture. The field is owned by the adjacent Ace Kennels, where you ask and the friendly folk bring the dogs in off the field and let you visit in peace. The kennel owner said the stones are getting two or three lots of visitors a week at the moment.

There’s a weird feeling at this mutant four stone circle, perhaps assisted by the ominous industrial chicken sheds at the north end of the field. The stones seem to have been moved and jigged with and all but drained of significance. Two stones are aligned N/S, and one E/W. The fourth stone has the look of a flanker, but if it is then this stone has also been moved, or else the recumbent would have to have been facing south (as at Auchquhorthies nearby).

Certainly, it’s an intriguing piece of positioning here, in sight of both the sea and, a mile and a half to the south-west, Hill of Auchlee, which was home to the Cairnwell stone circle. This site may even have been in sight of the Cairnwell stones, but I can’t be sure. So much is unknown here, and an air of disjointedness permeates this site.

Sites within 20km of Craighead

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