What an idyllic site.
Sitting here by the stones on a tree stump in a sheltered suntrap with a babbling brook for company, I definitely felt an ode coming on.
Sadly, I'd left my pen and paper in the car so it's lost forever.
Three-quarters of a four-poster with stones up to 1.5m.
Access. There are various footpaths and tracks to the N which may lead to the circle. I decided to take the direct route by parking at NJ683155 where the stones can be seen and going in by the stream.
There is an unclimbable deer fence along the edge of the field so my way in was by the bridge using what can only be described as a "dreep".
Happily, it was much easier getting out.
Visited 16 March 2005
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"Walkers to Stone Circle welcome"
Now there's a sign you don't often see on fieldgates but that's what it says at this site.
This lovely six-stone circle has been restored by the local society.
Access Park at the parking area for the hill monument thing (NJ883307) and walk east to the access track prior to South Ythsie farm.
Visited 19 March 2005
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The seven stones here form an oval with an outlier but Thom interpreted them as the remains of two concentric circles plus an outlier.
Burl says it "may" have been an RSC with ring cairn now lacking its recumbent.
Either way it's definitely one to see.
Visited 15 March 2005
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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
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The same height as the nearby Langstane o' Craigearn (3.4m), this one is more imposing but suffers from being surrounded by trees.
Access. On the map this looks like it sits in a clear area between two lines of plantation. It doesn't. That clear area has been planted with trees now over 2m high. The stone itself sits in a clearing. Park at NJ712132, up the track NE then over two fences. I'd recommend having a GPS as there are no landmarks to follow.
Visited 16 March 2005
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Around noon, even in mid-March, is not a good time to visit a cup and ring-marked rock. But here the carvings are so strong that they still show up well in the mid-day sun.
This boulder is only a short distance from the RSC at Rothiemay which also carries cup and ring marks.
The views are not good; forestry on two sides one of them obscuring a view of Knock Hill to the N.
Access. Easy. Parking at NJ537468 then through two gates.
Visited 17 March 2005
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I've not mentioned hills much in these posts because it would become a bit repetitive (and they're all in the book anyway) but this one is possibly worthy of mention in that it is (I think) the only RSC where any of the major significant hills (Tap O'Noth in this case) is the hill which would be seen over the recumbent from the centre of the circle. The conical Knock Hill is also visible - 10km to the N.
The saddle-backed recumbent and two fallen stones are all that survive here.
There are markings on the recumbent which mark the line of the major southern moonset but they looked a bit glacial to me.
Access. Quite easy. Park at the houses at the railway bridge then through one gate and up a short steepish hill.
Visited 17 march 2005
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"The stones of this circle ... are so inconspicuous that most persons would walk past them unheeding."
So said Fred Coles in 1900 so it's hardly surprising that we have difficulty recognising it today!
I don't think I was any more successful than Merrick or Moth. I've posted a couple of pics of what there was to see.
They seem to match Merrick's description and presumably what Moth saw but it is difficult to make much sense of what's there.
From Coles' 1900 description (if you ignore his dimensions which he seems to have a problem with), this could well be an RSC.
He describes three almost concentric circles which are probably the inner and outer faces of the ring cairn and the outer circle of stones. It seems to bear a strong resemblance to nearby Auchquhorthies.
Not a mystery, just a mess.
Visited 14 March 2005
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Agreed Moth, this one should be better known (or, at least, documented) given its surviving condition and accessibility.
Open views on the recumbent side; in addition to the recumbent and flankers, three other stones remain standing. Not bad for a forestry site.
Being a Kincardineshire RSC, it is orientated towards the SE quadrant - 168 degrees.
Visited 14 March 2005
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Sites affect you differently.
More than halfway through the trip, I'd seen a few RSCs by now but this one really stopped me in my tracks.
Maybe it's the size and the way it leans towards you, beckoning you to come closer. Maybe its the fact that there are no circle stones so these three stones get your full attention.
Standing on its own with no distracting trees or fences (or ponies!) certainly helps.
This is the site that no advance reading had prepared me for. Minimalistic .... but then I like that.
3.9m long recumbent; flankers 2.5m and 2.8m. It's also one of many sites where the most interesting or best dressed side of the recumbent stone is on the outside. To be seen by the moon not the participants.
Visited 18 March 2005
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Second visit here. The first time (1999) the visit was rather curtailed due to the attention of the cattle which appear in some of the images.
It's such a wonderful site that I had to come back and this time I had the place to myself.
Access. . I agree with pebblesfromheaven about driving up to the site - although I can see that some might. But it is possible to drive to NJ864128 and park beside the cottages.
Visited 18 March 2005
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