One of three stone balls displayed in the British Museum, London.
Image credit: Eileen Roche
Sites in Aberdeenshire
Images
The builders of the new recumbent stone circle, Allan Brownie (caretaker of the circle and owner of BA stores) and Jason Schroeder (Sacred Way tours).
Image credit: www.sacredway.co.uk
Looking at the South West Horizon at new recumbent stone circle at Lyne of Skene, Aberdeenshire.
Image credit: www.sacredway.co.uk
A really nice one – but, stupidly, I’ve lost the note I took of its findspot.
Lost the note of the findspot for this one too.
Towie. Really sorry about this one being blurred as it was one of my favourites.
Turriff
Leslie
Kildrummy.
Another one from Kildrummy. Nice example so pity it’s blurred.
Fyvie
Another example from Fyvie.
A third example from Fyvie. Blurred, sorry.
Cairnroben. Sorry, blurred.
Case 1
Case 1 – another view
Case 2
Case 2 – another view.
Case 3
Case 3 – another view.
Case 4
Case 4 – another view.
Case 5. Mainly broken and damaged examples.
Articles
An abandoned visitor centre in Aberdeenshire, which cost £4m to build in 1997, is on the market for offers over £150,000.
Archaeolink Prehistory Park at Oyne, near Insch, shut down in 2011, after Aberdeenshire Council withdrew funding due to poor visitor numbers.
(As most who lived in Aberdeenshire knew, great idea, great site, wrong place)
A site on the banks of an Aberdeenshire river has been found to be a hotspot of prehistoric activity.
More info :
North-east archaeological group wins national award after bringing the past to life in Deeside
There are no whips or sable fedora hats among the men, women and children who search for ancient artefacts across Aberdeenshire.
Ancient Pictish relic is unearthed from River Don after angler spots it due to low water levels
A fisherman found an “incredibly rare” Pictish stone after a long spell of warm weather lowered water levels in the River Don.
Teams from Historic Environment Scotland (HES), the council and Aberdeen University visited the site to remove the relic after the angler spotted it partially uncovered in the river.
The stone, which is believed to date from around 600AD, was removed and taken to the Crown Office’s Treasure Trove in Edinburgh to be examined.
Read the full report in the Aberdeen Press and Journal.
What you find when making a car park.
eveningexpress.co.uk/news/local/4-000-year-pottery-found-at-planned-aberdeen-car-park-1.404612
From the Press and Journal website (19 October 2012):
A mothballed prehistory park in Aberdeenshire is now available for let – which could finally clear the way for it to be put up for sale.
Archaeolink at Oyne closed last year after the local authority withdrew all funding for the venture long labelled a “white elephant” by critics.
Negotiations between Aberdeenshire Council and the Archaeolink Trust had been continuing over the possibility of reviving the site, but earlier this year the now-dissolved trust transferred its lease of the site back to the council.
On the 4th January at 7.30pm the Garioch Heritage Society have Colin Harris speaking about Dunnydeer (hillfort, stone circle etc) and Wardhouse (ancient settlement, cairns, RSCs) in the Neolithic. Venue – Acorn Centre, Inverurie.
(Hopefully the bhoy will make it and report back)
Lifeline handed to Archaeolink which closed last month as a victim of council budget cuts.
Quite a bit more info :
Councillor says hope still remains that the attraction could survive with new investment.
More info :
Following on from drewbhoy’s post...
An Aberdeenshire tourist attraction facing closure after councillors decided to end a six-figure annual subsidy could yet be saved.
The trust that runs the Archaeolink Prehistory Park in Oyne said it was “fairly positive” about its future.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-12932458
Archaeolink needs an investment of up to £2 million to save it from closure, says board of trustees.
More info :
Robinson hopes that attempts to reopen Archaeolink are successful.
More info :
Hopes that outside investment will be found to save business branded a ‘white elephant’.
More info :
Archaeolink staff given notice as council withdraws funding.
More info :
The council are inviting you to ‘soak up at the atmosphere at a well hidden stone circle as the daylight of the shortest day fades’ on Sunday 21st December.
You must book in advance by telephoning 01771 622857 and will meet at Drinnies Wood car park, near Fetterangus.
Which of course gives away which circle it is – if you don’t want to know, look away now.......
Sure?
Loudon Wood – so if you don’t want to book, meet them there ;-)
Photographer prefers black and white shots.
By Donna MacLarty.
Published by the Press and Journal,
20/10/09.
Further info :
pressandjournal.co.uk/article.aspx/1447205
Even more info at :
heathermaslenphotography.com/gallery_156115.html (Added by TMA Ed.)
A dog proved to be a canine Indiana Jones by finding a stone axe head dating back thousands of years in Aberdeenshire.
Rowan the inquisitive black labrador unearthed the Neolithic find at the Drum Estate.
She dropped it on owner Alec Gordon’s foot and he took it for examination, with early analysis estimating it as perhaps 6,000 years old.
Mr Gordon said: “I wonder if she knew it was something special.”
Mr Gordon was on a woodland walk with his dogs when Rowan made the unusual find.
He told BBC Scotland: “I was walking through the wood and we arrived at a spot where we normally stop. One of them dropped a stone which she’d been carrying.
“I took it back to Drum Castle and saw it had edges”.
“I gave it to the local National Trust for Scotland (NTS) archaeologist who almost immediately confirmed that it was Neolithic, 4-6,000 years old, and pretty special.”
Experts say the axe head is thousands of years old
Shannon Fraser, regional archaeologist for NTS in the north east of Scotland, said: “I think it’s really exciting because we have not had finds from Drum Estate from this period.”
She said of Rowan: “I think she should become my honorary assistant”.
Mr Duncan said of his dog: “I wonder if she knew it was something special because when she dropped it she dropped it on my foot”.
“It’s not every day you get an axe dropped on your foot.”
After years without any books on the Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire, we will get two in the next couple of years – to quote Adam Welfare at RCAHMS:
“You may be interested to learn that we are presently working on two
books about Aberdeenshire. The most advanced is a detailed multi-period
study of the archaeology of the Don Valley, which we trust will be
published sometime this coming year (2007). This contains an overview of
the Recumbent Stone Circles and related stone rings, etc., within the
survey area. In the case of the RSCs, the Don Valley embraces about 50%
of the known examples.The cover may even feature a Hi-Spy shot of Easter
Aquhorthies . . .”
As a result of collecting so much info on RSC’s during the course of researching this book, they decided to put it to good use and:
“because such a high proportion
of the known sites had been surveyed in the course of that study, we
decided to examine the remainder to the north and the south of this core
distribution and produce a separate volume devoted to the Recumbent
Stone Circles themselves. There were many reasons why this seemed a good
idea, not the least being that the class, itself, was long overdue a
review, as almost 150 sites have been attributed to it rightly or
wronglyover the years. This is likely to appear in about 12 to 18 months
time (2008).
Although the RSCs form the heart of this volume, it has been
necessarily to discuss them in relation to the many similar monument
types in their immediate neighbourhood and also further afield. Part of
the study is also devoted to a review of the development of the ideas
that have gradually accreted concerning their origin and purpose.”
I can’t wait! He also told me that full use of colour will be made throughout, in both photos and graphics, so they should be fantastic books. They will most likely appear under publication of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
As with all publishing, the dates are subject to revision, but roll on 2008!
Andy Philip 09:00 – 22nd December 2005
Fires were lit at an Aberdeenshire stone circle last night to mark the winter solstice.
The Breemie stones, at Broomhill, by Lyne of Skene, attracted people for quiet reflection as they watched the sun set on the shortest day of the year.
Organisers of the gathering asked people to take along wood to fuel four fires.
Jason Schroeder, who erected the stone circle, advertised it on his “www.sacredway.co.uk” website.
He urged visitors to write down experiences they did not want to live through again on a piece of paper before burning the messages in the central fire.
After destroying the messages, they were encouraged to add their wood to the flames to connect with Mother Nature.
Mr Schroeder, originally from South Africa, said around 3,500 revellers turned up at his previous Summer Solstice at the stones.
More...
Source: Press and Journal
Breemie Recumbent Stone Circle, Lyne of Skene, Aberdeenshire
A Festival for the “mind, body and spirit” is being held at a modern stone circle in Aberdeenshire this summer, organised by a shamanic healer.
Jason Schroeder hopes to attract thousands of people to the all-day event at the Breemie stone circle, which he erected at Lyne of Skene near Aberdeen (NJ769110).
The 41-year-old hopes an array of alternative and complementary therapies and performance arts will draw families from around Scotland. Workshops, taster sessions and demonstrations will take place during the day, with musical entertainment taking over in the evening.
Speakers are due to travel from the US and around the UK to attend the event, on land adjacent to the B.A. Country Store.
Opening at 10am on Saturday, June 18, it is expected to run into the early hours of Sunday, with camping facilities provided for those attending....
theherald.co.uk/news/37715.html
Archaeologists are turning their attention to one of Scotland’s most historically overlooked areas by scheduling scores of ancient and modern sites dating from 4000BC to the cold war era. Hill forts, castles, sheilings, standing stones, hut circles, churches, lime kilns and pillboxes were the focus of the first major scheduling drive in the north of Scotland by heritage experts from Historic Scotland. The teams of historians and ancient monument inspectors are keen to shed light on the historical richness of Aberdeenshire, an area previously overlooked during efforts to protect important sites.
Dr Gordon Barclay, principal inspector of ancient monuments with Historic Scotland, said the new scheduling campaign was a productive way of mapping the nation’s past. He said: “This is the first time we have tried out this area-based approach to scheduling. We take a group of parishes and look at everything within it of historical interest. Previously, it has been up to the efforts of individual inspectors and was not very co-ordinated, with areas getting more scheduling than others.” He added: “This is a more consistent approach looking at one area after another. We have around 200 candidate sites in the area and about one half or two-thirds of these will eventually be scheduled.”
Inspectors have been in Strathdon and Alford carrying out the scheduling assessments on a large number of archaeological sites. Historic Scotland said the mammoth exercise was an essential part of protecting and understanding the past. If the sites visited are judged to be of national importance, they will then be scheduled as ancient monuments and will be protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
The teams will schedule a number of important sites including Asloun Castle, near Alford, a sixteenth-century towerhouse, following their visit. They are also likely to schedule a prehistoric site on Deskrey Hill, east of Strathdon, which has hut circles and contains evidence of some of the earliest farming in Scotland. A second world war pillbox near Huntly and a deserted medieval township, near Upperton, will also be scheduled.
Generations of hunters, herdsmen, farmers and foresters helped shape the landscape in the north-east. Traces of their houses, farms, religious sites or burial monuments litter the landscape beside more recent features such as castles, industrial sites, churches or military installations. The first farmers in the area also introduced pottery and polished stone axes. Their descendants made use of the deposits of flint near the coast at Boddam, south of Peterhead.
An Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said there were a great number of historical sites that they were keen to protect. “We welcome this week’s visit by Historic Scotland to view nearly 200 sites as part of the organisation’s scheduling assessments,” he said, “These are done on an ongoing basis, but this week’s programme involves a major concentration of Aberdeenshire sites. We have highlighted a number of locations which we feel are unique to the area. Our archaeology team is guiding the visitors around sites ranging from the neolithic age, right up to the last world war.”
Dr Barclay said the project had already been a resounding success and would be taken to other parts of the country. “We will be up in the area around Inverness next,” he said, “We will look at everything which is legally able to be scheduled. Six teams of two inspectors look at the sites to get an idea of what is left there.”
Scheduled ancient monuments are sites, buildings and other features of artificial construction protected by the Scottish ministers under the terms of the 1979 act. There are more than 7500 in Scotland. They include an extraordinary range of monuments including prehistoric chambered tombs, stone circles, Roman forts and ruined castles.
From The Scotsman, 24 November 2004
Archaeologists in Scotland have made a “hugely significant” discovery by unearthing the best and most comprehensively-dated Bronze Age site in the UK, The Scotsman has learned.
The tightly clustered group of 29 cremation pits, one containing eagle talons, was uncovered at Skilmafilly when the gas maintenance company Transco was excavating and installing its £56 million gas pipeline from St Fergus to Aberdeen.
With no previous indications of the burial site, either from ground-level observations or aerial photographs, the pits were stumbled on by chance. Transco called in archaeological contractors to check the site while the pipeline was being installed. continues...
Moira Greig, an archaeologist with Aberdeenshire Council, has been carrying out an aerial survey of the north-east since the early 1990s and has discovered a significant number of new sites. She is to give an illustrated lunchtime talk tomorrow when she will discuss the highs and lows of recent archaeological photography work over Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Angus.
“The use of a plane brings a new perspective to archaeological photography,” said Moira. “Having a different viewpoint can help towards a better understanding of the setting of a monument in the landscape, as well as being able to see a larger area of a complex site at one time. It would be good to get information about what, for example, the crop mark sites are, but we tend to leave the monuments alone unless someone is doing research on the site. It is used mainly so we know what features are there, so we can stop any potential developments in that area. Just about every flight we do comes up with a new site, but it depends on the weather.”
A Date with the Flying Archaeologist has been jointly organised by Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire councils as part of a series of events being held throughout September to mark Scottish Archaeology Month. See also www.scottisharchaeology.org.uk
The Flying Archaeologist will be at Provost Skene’s House, Aberdeen, from 12.30pm to 1pm. Admission is free but places are limited to a maximum of 60. The museum is in Guestrow, off Broad Street.
From the Press and Journal- Aberdeenshire shaman builds a new recumbent circle with another one planned soon;
pressandjournal.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=62692&command=displayContent&sourceNode=62244&contentPK=10013530
This years Archaeological Research in Progress conference in Aberdeen on the 29th May will examine recent and ongoing projects in the North East of Scotland. The programme looks interesting including a talk entilted ‘The moon and the bonfire: recent excavations at recumbent stone circles’.
Full details here;
britarch.ac.uk/csa/arp.html
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3581355.stm
Archaeologists are excited by a discovery which they say proves that early Scottish settlers travelled through the Cairngorms 7,000 years ago. More than 80 pieces of worked flint and quartz dating from the Mesolithic period have been found at a site in Glen Dee near Braemar. The finds were made by chance during conservation work on footpaths.
Experts say it proves people moved through the landscape in seasonal cycles gathering and hunting for food. Most of the knowledge of the period so far has come from sites on the coast. These groups of people may have been very familiar with what even today are considered to be extremely challenging Highland landscapes
Dr Shannon Fraser, archaeologist for the National Trust for Scotland in the North East, said: “We suspected that major route ways through the Cairngorms, such as the Lairig Ghru, may have been used by our earliest Scottish settlers as they moved through the landscape in seasonal cycles, fishing, hunting and collecting other foods and useful materials. But without any physical evidence for the presence of these people, we just couldn’t prove it. What is so exciting is that these tiny fragments of worked stone, some only a few millimetres long, suggest that these groups of people may have been very familiar with what even today are considered to be extremely challenging Highland landscapes.”
Further study funded by Aberdeenshire Council has demonstrated that both tool-making activities and the use of the tools themselves were happening at the site. The finds include both broken tools and the waste flakes produced when working pieces of flint.
Caroline Wickham-Jones, a consultant archaeologist specialising in the Mesolithic of Scotland, said: “This is a very important find because it helps to fill in one of the most glaring of gaps in our knowledge of the early settlement of Scotland: what was going on in the interior of the country.”
An Ancient burial site, which was unearthed by workers preparing land for a massive gas pipeline, has proved to be a mine of information about Scottish people of the Bronze Age. Archaeologists at the 3,500-year-old cemetery, found in a field near Auchnagatt (Aberdeenshire), say the discovery also reveals important clues about ancient burial rituals in the north-east. They are analysing pottery urns, containing cremated human remains.
The Bronze Age graveyard was found in the summer of 2001 on the route of a major Transco pipeline development from St Fergus to near Aberdeen. The find was the first of its kind in Aberdeenshire for more than 30 years.
Melanie Johnson, field officer at CFA Archaeology, said: “The cemetery consisted of almost 40 pits containing cremations, 11 of which were contained inside pottery urns,” she said. “The site was unusually well-preserved.” A number of cremations have now been dated, using the latest advances in radiocarbon dating of human bones. Ms Johnson said: “This shows the cemetery was in use from about 1900 BCE to 1600 BCE. “The urns are currently being conserved at Aberdeen’s Marischal Museum, while analysis of the cremated human bones will reveal all sorts about the person who died, including their sex, age and whether they were in good health.”
Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal (15 January 2004)
“Carved Stone Balls – a Prehistoric Mystery”
The exhibition runs January 19 – March 31 2004 at the Marischal Museum in Aberdeen.
No-one knows exactly what the balls were used for, but the exhibition includes suggestions from archaeologists, the children of Woodside School and the sculptor Keiji Nagahiro (two of whose sculptures are included in the exhibition).
For further information contact Dr Hilary Murray on 01224 274305 or visit the website at www.abdn.ac.uk/marischalmuseum
or
abdn.ac.uk/marischalmuseum/exhibitions/current.hti
“As over 70 stone balls will be on display this is a unique opportunity to see one of the largest collections of these enigmatic carvings.”
Also why not see Annabel Carey’s batiks of standing stones, “Spirit of Stones”, also on at the museum until the 19th of February. Her inspirations include well known north-east sites such as Sunhoney, Cullerlie and Loanhead of Daviot. An example is on the website above.
Thanks to Fiona Young who sent in this article from her local Aberdeenshire newspaper:
“Stone Circle Named As Ancient Monument”
by Audrey Innes
The remains of a group of North-east standing stones, which date back more than 5,000 years, look set to be named as an official ancient monument later this year.
The Neolithic stone circle, which can be found to the west of North Mains of Auchmaliddie, near Longside, is to be scheduled by Historic Scotland.
This will result in the recumbent circle receiving statutory protection and will be monitored by inspectors on a cyclical basis.
The majority of the stones have been stolen and only the recumbent stone and west flanker, which has now fallen, have survived.
The white quartz stones are understood to have been quarried within the area.
A spokesman for Historic Scotland said this type of stone circle was distinctive to the North-east and dates from the later Neolithic period, around 3,000BC.
He said: “The monument is in the process of being scheduled as an ancient monument and the work will be completed within the next three months.”
He added that they had still to speak with the monument’s owners.
Yesterday, South Buchan councillor Norma Thomson, who represents Auchmaliddie, said: “Buchan is rich in historic sites and monuments such as these, so any moves to protect our heritage in this way are to be welcomed.”
Banff and Buchan MSP Alex Salmond said: “The site has not been inspected by the authorities for the last 10 years or so and concerns were expressed to me about the potential implications of this.”
He added: “I contacted Historic Scotland and I am pleased that they arranged for an inspection to be carried out and consider the site worthy of inclusion as a scheduled monument.”
There are about 100 of these recumbent stone circles within the North-east. They usually comprise of a ring of stones, around 65ft in diameter with the largest stone, the recumbent, lying on its side.
These stunningly beautiful glass beads with intricate spiral patterns are known only in the North East. Who made them and why?
More info :
“Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in deserted places,
Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor,
Hills of sheep, and the howes of the silent vanished races,
And winds, austere and pure.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850-1894
From Songs of Travel
Blagged from an Aberdeenshire Council pamphlet “The Stone Circle.”
The circle I helped build is at Lyne of Skene (hill above BA stores) on the owners land, Allan Brownie. If you look over the recumbent (SW horizon)it is aligned to the Barmekin Hill (Iron Age hill fort on top). However when looking at an OS map afterwards I noticed that it also lines up with the stones at Wester Echt, Midmar Kirk, Sunhoney Stone circle and a ceremonial site, Blackyduds on the Hill of Fare on the far horizon. We felt guided from the beginning of this project which was a loose idea in late 2003 when I started Sacred Way tours and met Allan. We had one day to build it this year and it happened to be on Beltane. The next day was a red moon lunar eclipse which activated the circle and niether of us was aware of this lunar happening until after it had happened. The following weekend Allan held the annual BA Agricultural Vintage fair with all the stall holders around the circle. It was amazing to see that 6000 years later some 7000 people from the surrounding farming communities and Aberdeen would once again meet and be engaged at a stone circle, as I believe would have happened in the original communities. I have been asked to build other circles but feel that if the alignment etc is not correct then I will not be involved in it. These circles serve an ‘energy’ purpose as much today as they did by the original creators.
Aberdeen University held an exhibition of carved stone balls earlier this year. Some 70 were on display – which must be pretty well their entire collection.
They have about eight or so on permanent display and these were supplemented by five cases of rarely seen items.
Images of all of these are posted here.
A couple of apologies. I had no tripod so some from the permanent display (which were in a dark corner) are blurred. Posted nevertheless as they still give some idea of the decoration. Also, I’ve lost the names of two of the findposts.
The balls in the cases are shown from two angles.
Some background info on the balls.
411 known examples at the last count.
Vast majority 7cm diameter. 12 at 9-11 cm and some oval ones.
Stone used varies considerably – sandstone, quartzite, gneiss, ...
Distribution – largely Aberdeenshire, Grampians. Also other parts of Scotland. Five found outside Scotland.
Context/Date – Skara Brae finds are late Neolithic. Reports of some finds in Bronze Age contexts but none from recent well-documented excavations.
Purpose? The exhibition offered no real explanation so it’s open season on that one!
[Open access] This volume presents the result of three excavations and two field walking surveys in Aberdeenshire. They were intended to shed new light on the character, chronology and structural development of the distinctive recumbent stone circles which are such a feature of north-east Scotland. Although the monuments share certain elements with other traditions of prehistoric architecture, and, in particular, with the Clava Cairns of the inner Moray Firth, no excavations at these sites had been published since the 1930s and their wider contexts had not been investigated by field survey. The new project took advantage of techniques which had not been used before, including pollen analysis and soil micromorphology, in an attempt to interpret these monuments in their wider chronological and geographical contexts. In that respect this work was the sequel to an earlier investigation of the Clava Cairns.
PDF link for a pamphlet made by Aberdeenshire Council in 2022.
Key:
Pink = Recumbent Stone Circle
Blue = Four-poster or similar
Green = Ring Cairn
Black = Destroyed (no trace remains)
With links to Wikipedia articles via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recumbent_stone_circles
Good paper by James Richie.
Lots of pics of Aberdeenshire stone circles etc.
LEMUR (LEarning with MUseum Resources) allows you to see online the holdings of the University of Aberdeen. This link takes you to their collection of pleasing Neolithic/Bronze Age ‘carved stone balls’, most of which were found in Aberdeenshire.
PSAS articles
This link takes you to the PSAS volume index.
Volumes 34 to 39 inclusive contain articles on RSCs which, despite their age, are almost indispensible.
They comprise a six-part survey by Fred Coles of (probably) all the stone circles in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire including fine ground plans and stone measurements in each case.
Many site entries have excellent drawings of the stones (not so good on human figures though!) and, of course, it is always interesting to hear what the writer has to say about the circles based on the local knowledge around at the start of the last century.
Volume 102 has an article by Burl on RSCs including grid references on 74 definite and 18 probable RSC sites.
These PSAS references are all PDF articles, many of them very long.
Other web sites
Megalithics at megalithics.com/scotland.htm has some good movie panoramas of RSCs including some of the lesser well known ones.
This Aberdeen University site abdn.ac.uk/~lib266/stones/main.htm#index
has wide coverage of RSCs and other sites. Especially good on directions
Personal day tours of Aberdeenshires recumbent stone circles, hillforts etc. Local information, picture gallery, booking online facility etc.
View the Sites and Monuments list online (v. useful).
Clickable maps of sites to visit.
Family friendly archaeological visitor centre.
25 Miles from Aberdeen. Indoor and outdoor activities.
Covers neolithic – iron age periods, with a reconstruction of roundhouse etc. I liked it, so did the missus and the bairn.
Aberdeenshire recumbent stone circles, Pictish stones, legends, images.
