Driving up from Banchory to the North Aberdeenshire coast - via Tomnagorn - I just had to stop off at Stonehead..... and Dunnideer sort of insists you pay a visit, too.
My first 'vitrified' hillfort, as it happens. This is apparently a process - intentional or otherwise - whereby the stone rampart is transformed into a very hard glass-like substance through intense heat.
Crowned by a large fragment of an early medieval tower, both Dunnydeer and - just - Stonehead RSCs are visible from the summit. To be honest it's too much for the brain to take in all at once!
Note that it's a sharp climb to the summit except if approaching from the direction of the Dunnydeer RSC. I'd therefore recommend parking at Dunnydeer Farm and ascending via the circle.......
We were staying in Insch for the night, so after a long drive up from Lancashire, stopping en-route to pick Vicky up in Glasgow, we finally saw Dunnideer around 7pm.
As we drove by this most beautiful of sites, a herd of red deer came running down the hill, following a huge stag. We pulled the car over and just watched, amazed by it all. There was just the railway track between us and them. The stag looked across at us, sniffed majestically into the wind and set off again, followed by the hinds. The most Scottish of moments I have ever witnessed!!
The B&B was pretty ropey but the setting was amazing - our room had a wee bench and table outside and we sat and watched the sunset and dusk fall over the hill. It was still light enough to read our maps at 11pm, with a bottle of wine and some bread and cheese to finish it off - just perfect.....
.. the Hill of Dun-o-Deer, in the parish of Insch: a conical hill of no great elevation, on the top of which stand the remains of a vitrified fort or castle, said to have been built by King Gregory about the year 880, and was used by that monarch as a hunting-seat; and where, combining business with pleasure, he is said to have meted out evenhanded justice to his subjects in the Garioch.
It has long been the popular belief that this hill contains gold; and that the teeth of sheep fed on it assume a yellow tinge, and also that their fat is of the same colour. Notwithstanding this, no attempt at scientific investigation has ever been made.
Abredonensis.
From Notes and Queries, September 24th, 1853.
The New Statistical Account says ".. only one wall [of the tower] remains entire, and this having but two windows, one above the oteher, and the upper one very much enlarged by the crumbling of its sides, has a curious effect seen at a distance, and is known by the name of "Gregory's wall," from a tradition that King Gregory had resided here."
Invirurie Graveyard, Dunnideer vitrified hill fort and places in-between. On one of the pictures if you look very closely you can see Tap O' Noth in the distance!
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