The last time I was up here the circle was a bit of shambles. The fence was ruined, cow droppings and one of the cows had pushed one of the circle stones over. However the fence has been put back up and the droppings removed therefore the place is much tidier.
On the south of Strichen leaving by the A981. Immediately after crossing the North Ugie Water follow the signs to the stone circle. After finding this go try and find Louden Wood!
Re-visited 17/06/09. (As Chris says it is a nice place)
Loudon Wood's easy....... when you know where it is ;-)
Strichen is one of those sites that's transformed by some blue sky. Tyrebagger's great in any weather, but for me Strichen, Cullerlie, Daviot can be a bit meh when it's grey. Not on this visit though.
Loudon's OK if you trust your map and ignore all signs. I was up that way last month - the trouble with Loudon Wood is the council muppets have placed a sign for the circle at the White Cow Wood car park..... pointing down the forestry track across the road!
Took me a while to realise that was completely wrong and my original notes were right - park near South Auchmachar quite a bit down the road....I suppose they mean well.
As for Strichen I think the archaeologist lads did a great job putting it back together, reading what it went through. Noticed one stone was toppled however - any idea if this was vandalism??
My dad took there when I was a wee boy and my memory unsurprisingly failed after a gap of many years, but common sense prevailed and I asked at one of the houses, so no probs at Louden. But a disaster for visitors following the signposts. White Cow Woods isn't much better - a signpost to nowhere. A startled cow apparently knocked the stone over according to the librarian in the village, this prompted the 'powers' that be to fix the fence. To late as usual.
I did report the fallen stone to the council archy dept nearly 2 years ago. They said they'd look at it......
Noticed the sign the other day, wonder how many people it's sent off on a wild goose chase? Awful.
The restoration was well done and I can't quite put into words what I mean about certain sites: some seem to have more 'oomph' than others, but I've noticed that can change with weather, time of day etc. Just blathering now.....
Yup I reported it to the local MP/MSP and council as well. Like lots of other things it was probably filed under forget! At least the fence was fixed....
I visited Strichen RSC in June of 2010, the thing that really put me off was the delicate nature of the so called wire fence between me,the RSC & a field full of then docile looking bulls.I've never eaten a sannie as fast as that before. That said I still had time to take a few photos of the 'circle' and vids before making my escape.
Since Strichen RSC, Loudon et al are essentially my back-yard I've no problem finding these sites, pity those that aren't as familiar or don't carry an OS map though.