I'd strongly recommend Inverurie (or somewhere near it) as a base - good for the Dunideer circles and for heading south to the ones near Aberdeen.

It's also deffo the place other than Aberdeen itself (which for a biggish city is also a nice place) for restaurants - had a nice curry there....

A few hints & tips, mainly stone-wise in some of the threads indexed here http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?s_id=437

love

Moth