The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Cairn Of Shiels

Cairn(s)

Fieldnotes

Just north of the Laurencekirk by-pass there is a minor road that heads south east and leads straight to Shiels Farm. Permission was given to park and I climbed the first stage of Shiels Hill. This is a fairly steep climb but at least it is on a decent track. Follow the track when it heads north but look east. A small, mainly filled in loch bars the way to the cairn. (after trying to walk on water near Inverness I gave this a wide berth.) So head north, then east after the loch (this is very boggy and has been churned up by the cows, who were quite friendly) and walk south along the top of the ridge to the cairn.

Fantastic scenery to be seen includes the Highlands, North Sea, The Mearns as well as modern additions, a wind turbine farm to the east. Still the cairn, almost Wessex like in style, seems in reasonable condition sitting over twenty meters wide, a platform on which sits a central mound over 6 meters wide. The height of the structure is over 1.5 meters. It is also made up from pebbles as opposed to rocks.

So a very lovely cairn, a fine walk and Aberdeenshire looks lovely. On the way down I headed further north to look at what resembled a cairn, it wasn't, it was piles of rubble from a quarry. After that it was back down the hill and onto the next site.

Visited 9/8/2012
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
11th August 2012ce

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