“To the Grinago Stone, near Oldmeldrum, attaches one of the somewhat obvious and usually absurd tales invented to account for a puzzling name. After the defeat of the Comyns at the battle of Barra in 1308, Bruce pursued the retreating army towards Buchan, whence it came. Having risen from a sick-bed to fight the battle, exhaustion compelled him to rest against this stone as he passed. To the appeals of his men that he should rest a while he gave blunt refusal; it was his but to “grin an’ go hence Grinago. The name, which Professor Watson regards as likely to be Gaelic, has become too seriously corrupted to be identifiable.”
Folklore of Aberdeenshire Stone Circles, 1926.