Leave the A96 at Colpy and follow the Jericho road. Just outside the hamlet the circle would have stood on the way to the, long shut and ruined, distillery. The circle, as well as a cairn, was destroyed to make the road. Another sad end!
Driven past most weeks.
Nothing now is left of this RSC which was destroyed. The church, graveyard and walls all being placed on top of it. It’s easy to see why the circle was built. Bennachie is clearly visible and less than ten miles away.
Leave the A96 at Colpy and take the A920 Oldmeldrum road. After a 1/2 mile take the first left. The ruined church is at the first corner which marks the start/end of the Lawrence Road.
Driven past every week.
Don’t look in amongst the trees as the circle isn’t there. Some maps misleadingly place the circle in the middle of Strone Wood. Leaving Alford and heading west on the A944 towards Aberdeen take Castle Road and head south until the first corner which leads to the east. Keep going until Dikehead Cottages. Opposite here there is an under used path follow this until a dis-used farm is reached, about 1 mile. The circle is a short way uphill behind it and not, as mentioned, amongst the trees.
I found it just as darkness was beginning to fall. Snow had just started to fall also, giving a rather beautiful and peaceful feeling to the scene. In 1897 five stones were re-erected but unfortunately only two remain standing. Burl descibed this as elfin, unique and frail as youngsters unable to lift heavy weights. He was, of course, referring to the size of the stones and sets the picture perfectly.
I hope the pictures do justice as nature on that day, along with the ancients many many years ago must have been..... freezing!!
Visited January 09.
Oh my! Wow! It took a while for us to find this place, we’d been trying to get to it from the wrong road.
Easiest – from Monte D’Accoddi, you are forced to turn south along the 131 towards Sassari (and it should be noted, there are two bits of 131 round here, you want the east branch to find the altar). At the first opportunity, turn back on yourself, pass the entrance to Monte D’Accoddi again, and straight on at the next side turns – you’ll see a Q8 petrol station on the other carriageway and then 24km marker just before a large cluster of dilapidated buildings. Turn right (obviously!) here and choose the left hand one of the two tracks in front of you and drive to the end at the back of some houses.
The tombs start right at the edge of the track and continue across the scrub land between the fields. I’d seen a couple of images online and knew I had to visit, but wasn’t expecting quite what was found ..... and further research reveals more we missed too!
The site has incredibly deep cart ruts – like those found on Malta for example at Clapham Junction – running across it.
Mystery solved!
Having located its neighbour, it would have been rude to pass only a few km from Li Mizzani and we were feeling still in need of a good tomba having spent most of the week exploring domus je janas (groups of rock cut tombs).
The site had been so busy on our previous visit, we weren’t surprised to see a few cars parked along the fence. We wandered in, to find just 4 people there, and in a combination of Italian, German and English, struck up conversation, and were fed delicious local cheese for our efforts. Cheers, Salvatore!
A couple of A4 laminates hung in the tree confirmed – the magnetic energy here is being used for natural healing!
I’m not sure about the claims that it can cure glaucoma and infertility, amongst other things, but this certainly is a beautiful place with a definite charm. I’ll be back again.
I wished I’d seen Merrick’s notes before setting out and getting completely lost. Being on the verge of giving up I went back to my car to have another look on the lap top when the farmer turned up. He gave proper directions and then told me to move my car!
Visited August 08.
Nether Balfour was destroyed in 1847. However the circle wasn’t at the farm. Leave the B944 heading west from the Bridge of Alford and take the second road north. The first crossroads is a good place to stop. To the left is the Nether Balfour farm and to the right a small row of bungalows. The circle was situated in a field in front of these houses looking down onto the River Don.
Visited August 08.
Follow the directions to Li Mizzani, but at the fork in the road where you turn left for that now signposted site, go right following signs to a church instead. Keep going, not far past the path to the church and 2.2km from the turn, you’ll find an old wooden ladder and a more modern white metal one to help you climb over the dry stone wall under a tree on the right, with a fallen info board.
There’s more than a tomba here!
A fallen menhir, the remains of a round building and a more recent rectangular building too.
The tomba itself ... sadly ruinous; there’s no stele, no funeral corridor, all that remains is the esedra and that’s quite overgrown. You could almost miss it while standing in front of it.
One for completists – we’d driven part way down the road 18 months before and not found this site, so I’d been determined to see what was there ....
And in 2008 the stones of this circle, often called Auchlee, are still hard to find as they are well hidden amongst ferns and bushes after an often boggy mess has been navigated. I walked up from Old Bourtreebush and Auchquhorties and on my way met the present occupier at Auchlee Farm and asked for permission to walk on his land. As well as granting permission he said that a nearby standing stone, probably a cow back scratcher, had been pulled down and left near the road side. He’d also in previous years given stones to the restoration of a nearby stone circle. The wall surrounding Craighead Badentoy is made from cairn like material. Finally the directions to the ring cairn/RSC were given.
It’s in a terrible state. The other contributors to this section are spot on! What’s left of the inner ring cairn is still there as well as the fallen outer stone circle. Sad just very sad!
Visited August 08.
This is part of an extended cemetery which stretches from west to east from Waterston Ridge to this site. From here Waterston is two miles away on a bridleway. This barrow is just below the ridge on its north side. The most prominent barrow is on the crest and is visible from Poundbury several miles to the south. I didn’t have time to get to it, as the heavens opened and it poured with rain.
As Tuesday says the leave the B977 Dunecht/Kintore at the Castle Fraser junction, the circle can be seen in the hollow to the left hand side. Pictish markings, once visible, seem invisible and have vanished. The impressive western flanker must be at least 10 feet and looks like the flankers at Midmar Kirk, the eastern is nearer 8 feet. Field clearance has been piled up beside the recumbent stone.
Thank goodness for a dry spell or I would have been up to knees in mud! Fortunately the farmer protects the circle by leaving a grass circle. Circles aplenty in this area.
Visited 12/3/09.
Three stones remain of this circle, one of which slants precariously. A cross has been chisled into the tallest. All the other stones, out of a possible 9, have gone. However in amongst the trees at New Wester Echt Farm are some interestingly shaped sones. They have obviously been there for some time.
From the village of Dunecht go south on the B977. Take the second road right, west, and stop at the farm. The site can be seen in a field a short distance away. Best to ask permission of the farmer before climbing over the gate.
Visited 16/3/08.
The 1958 newspaper report on the Tomb of the Eagles reports a little disturbed long grass-covered mound (smaller than Isbister) between the tomb and the burnt mound settlement, with a few protruding stones. This can be found where North Taing appears on the O.S. as you are in close sight of the Tomb of The Eagles, inside a field.
It is a low bolster shape of earth with a few stones of varying size, and ends just before the modern fence. It is most striking that a only a few metres to its south is the angled top of a very regular-shaped stone, projecting a couple of feet or so and about six inches thick.
My rough measurements give NGRs for the stone at ND46938423 and the eastern end of the mound at ND46958425.
After the first fortnight of John Hedges recent survey of the area including the Tomb of The Eagles he found many dfferent Bronze Age sites.
I visited this on a lovely spring day about 18 months ago after seeing it on the OS map and thinking it looked unique. It was very pretty filled with bog cotton dancing about in the breeze – but also frustrating and puzzling.
I am a (reasonably) well read amatuer pre-historian and there is really precious little about this monument in anything I have read, which is suprising for if it really is a neolithic or bronze age monument then it would seem to be almost unique and not correspond to any of the standard categories of monument. It has both henge and stone circle characteristics laid out in a way which is unual in itself, but its rectangular shape is the real mystery – can’t think of anything else in the UK that is similar (although maybe there are similar monuments on the continent?).
I would be very grateful if anyone could direct me to any further info about this monument and/or advise if any excavations have ever taken place. It is difficult to know whether monuments that do not ‘fit in’ to the standard classes should be dismissed as oddities or may be able expand our knowledge. Certainly the recent Time Team programme featuring the possible ‘ceremonial cuaseway’ at nearby Rough Tor demonstrates that Bodmin is capable of turning up a few surprises – I for one would be very fascinated to know what a dig here might reveal.
One stone remains upright of this circle, six stones are said to have stood here, long thought to be part of the Broomend complex. A raised mound with field clearance and trees marks the site on the east side of the Inverurie/Kintore section of the A96 (south). Stop at the bus stop and the stone is clearly visible. It does look like a tree stump!!
Visited 20/3/08.
Turn from the A96 and take the B994 into Kintore. Opposite the primary school is East Park Road, take this then turn left and move onto Eastburn Road. At the corner stop and large gates can be seen to the left. From here the journey must be continued on foot. Go thru the gates and follow the path to the bottom of Tuach Hill, pronounced 2eee, don’t climb, turn right and walk around the bottom of the hill for a 1/4 mile. One stone definitely survives with perhaps another sitting in front. There is also evidence of a ring ditch.
Tuach Hill is also known as the Gallow Top.
Visited 24/4/08.
Leave the B999 and Udny Station and turn east thru the village, and the next village of Cultercullen. The remains of the circle can be seen on the brow of the hill in front of the Hill Of Fiddes farm. The recumbent and east flanker survive with field clearance piled behind. Cars can be left at the bottom of the hill or parked beside the barn which is nearest the circle.
Visited 3/4/08
Glenkindie is a small village on the A97. Take the road heading east at the northern end of the village and look to the left. The stone can be spotted in a field opposite the Crow Wood. The imposing granite stone stands at 2.3 meters and is a short, flat walk from wherever the field is entered. Almost next to the stone is the River Don.
Visited 27/12/08.
9 May 2009
Small and lonely hut circle found whilst descending from Ben More. Too shattered and wet to do much investigating but there did not look to be any other circles in the area.
To find it take path from road on waters edge up past house and through gate. The circle is probably about 11 o’clock from the gate...sorry cant be any clearer!
On Mull to climb mountains and drink....not go looking at stones. Still, we had a few hours before the ferry back so I managed to convince my fellow travellers to take the road from Tobermory to Dervaig to see these monsters.
A parking space with viewpoint out over the sea to Tiree and Coll gives access to the stones. The sign confused me at first, I thought it meant it was a 1.7 km walk to the stones....but looking back I think thats how far it was to toilets. I think I would have disappeared behind a tree before then.....
Anyway, a short walk across some rather boggy grassland leads to the gate into the plantation and there you are. It is interesting to compare the photo in THA with how things are now...the trees have grown somewhat...when will they be felled and the stones returned to there rightful place overlooking the bay?
Somewhere I read that they line up with the hill to the south...hard to say with the trees all around....perhaps soon we will find out.
This single bowl barrow is about 2 miles west of Pallington Clump on a military training area. The monument has a diameter of about 20 metres and is 1.2 metres in height. Magic says it has a ditch on the east and south sides, this is inside the danger area and wasn’t visible from the road. On the summit is a star shaped marker and it has been protected from military damage by large logs around the base.
Went to have a look and as expected found nothing except a hidden barbed wire fence which caused enough damage to my leg to force a visit to Rhynie Health centre, then Foresterhill Hospital in Aberdeen. Fortunately the husband of the nurse at Rhynie lives at Hillhead farm and was kind enough to transport me down to the village. Still...some nice views!
Visited 20/3/08
Local myth tells us that two stones were taken from a nearby stone circle, unfortunately the people at Inverurie Tourism didn’t know which one although Balhalgardy is in the area (and there is plenty to pick from), to mark the the place of the camp followers who were killed eg. the wives of the soldiers, at the Battle of Harlaw. This isn’t it’s original position as it was re-erected here in 1911 and was at least double it’s present height of just over 1 meter. Originally two stood but one was smashed to pieces, to aid in the building of a house, the other remains being used as a fence/gate post, being held up by rope and barbed wire. A sad end to a sad subject.
Leave the A96 just north of Balquhain and stay on the road until Harlaw house. The stone is on the opposite side.
Visited 8/5/09.
This circle is much better known as Innesmill. Leave the Fochabers to Llanbryde road, A96, at the signposted Urquhart junction. Thru the village, thru the next crossroads, pull into the side and the site is to the left (the west). The other fieldnotes explain the lay out.
Visited on a very frosty day 29/12/08.
Some describe this site as a Chamber Cairn others the remnant of a Clava Cairn. What remains is one standing with several lying beside it along with some field clearance. The main view is towards the Moray Firth to the north. Cars can be parked on the verge of the A96 with site being visible from the road near the Allanfearn farm.
Very frosty! 29/12/08.
