Latest Posts

18/05/2025 – I was supposed to be looking for big trees near Inverness today but somehow I ended up by mid morning half way down Loch Ness and off to Corrimony Chambered Cairn! I’m not complaining as this Bronze Age Clava type cairn is pretty wow! I like a day that doesn’t go to plan by still turns out OK.

Warning: the following contains a good deal of unwarranted speculation. But then again, what else does a possibly over-imaginative visitor have, thousands of years down the line? For all I know, maybe it really is the burial site of four kings.

I definitely felt these four were in a circle, not a square. Perhaps that’s to do with their shapes – I felt like they were flatter on the inside-facing sides (though inspection didn’t really back this up). My sister compared them to the conspiratorially-positioned knights at Rollright. They’re so sturdy and pleasingly unangular. I couldn’t help feeling that they’d been positioned very deliberately, even though that must have been an extra nuisance. I mean how did they even haul them here in the first place, let alone manoeuvre them into the ground when they’re so close together. It’s a health and safety nightmare.

I liked the spacing of them. The size and consequent feel of the space in the centre felt just right for the size of the stones. Much closer and it’’d be crowded. But any further apart and you’d lose the cohesion of the group.

We sat and tried to draw them. Our eyes were drawn to the view through each gap. The view to the west seemed most lumpy and interesting to me. I’d like to have seen the view to the east, because that’s the line to Hindwell Pool, where the stones go to drink and where the totally massive Hindwell palisaded enclosure was. But that way is blocked by the encroaching hedge.

We amused ourselves by wondering whether the circle wasn’t like an entrance gate where you got your bag checked and your ticket stamped. Or where you had to feel the vibes and throw off your everyday thoughts before you walked to the important place of the enclosure.

It was very quiet here and with the sun shining not far off the solstice we started to feel very relaxed and sleepy. We felt that falling asleep might not be the best idea at such a circle, far too dangerous :)

I don’t believe in dowsing of course, it’s not scientific. But my grandfather could dowse for water. And I keep some dowsing rods in the boot of my car. Just in case, like. So we both had a go. The rods crossed every time I went through the gaps between the stones. But what else would you expect.

I had hoped to go and ‘feel the vibes’ at Hindwell Pool, but it’s all on the land of the farm, and besides it was evidently lunchtime. So we emulated the stones by getting a drink there instead (some local apple juice from the farm shop).

I can’t think of a stone circle I’ve liked better, and would recommend a visit.

I joined an archaeological dig close to here which has been investigating another site with possible usage back to the neolithic. In time I’ll log that but perhaps it’s best kept unmentioned for now since the dig is ongoing – happy to share details privately.

Afterwards I decided go for a walk on the hill and “discovered” the maiden castle [hahaha] whilst checking out the graveyard structure which is basically next to it. The wall of that can now easily be seen from the footpath since the (plantation) trees have been chopped down. If you make your way over the logging destruction, then you’ll see the “castle” behind it marked by a ring of mighty beech trees. I guess it was a dun which has been looted over time?

Maiden’s Castle is a great location, was cool to stumble across it. The mysteries of Bennachie are plentiful!]

” Apart from evidence of non-ferrous metalworking, a piece of early medieval decorated glass and a glass bead, there are three radiocarbon dates from contexts below and above the inner rampart, and beneath the wall of the circular internal building, all of them falling in the range of AD 410-640. ” -hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/records/SC2962.html