Templestone, Rafford

Nearest town:
Forres (4km W)
OS reference:
NJ068569
OS sheet:
27
Latitude:
57° 35' 33.24 N
Longitude:
3° 33' 33.51 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Templestone, Rafford (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

Templestone Stone Circle, with the ruined Blervie Castle on the horizon.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 26, 2012

Articles

Templestone, Rafford

LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 26, 2012

About two miles before reaching Forres (travelling on the A96 from Elgin), you encounter a sign indicating ‘Rafford‘.

Almost immediately after entering the outskirts of Rafford, take the first road on the left as far as the final house (named ‘Castle Hill House’).

Immediately east of this house is a field gate. Enter the field, and follow the boundary fence surrounding the garden of the house for about 100 metres. The fence now turns right: follow it for a further 100 m till it meets the field boundary fence. Templestone Stone Circle is just a few metres beyond this fence.

Folklore

Templestone, Rafford
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 15, 2025

A Pagan Site.

At a short distance from the Church of Rafford, on the face of the hill to the east, are the remains of a Druidical temple – now shrunk into three grey stones, of about three feet high, set into the earth. From time immemorial, they have been called “Temple Stones,” and the farm adjacent is so named.

A curious tradition still floats in the minds of the country people, respecting the attempt to build the old Kirk of Rafford on the site of this pagan temple. The first loads of stones for the kirk was laid down at Temple Stones, but the next morning they were found by the side of the burn, in a marsh, 1000 yards distant! During the night they had been removed by some invisible being; next day they were again brought back to the pagan site, but they refused to rest on such polluted soil; and back they whirled through the air, or along the earth to the burn-side. The heritors* not being disposed further to dispute the matter with so mysterious an agency, acquiesced, and the church was built in the marsh by the side of the burn, and in it the parishioners worshipped till the present beautiful fabric – the most beautiful of all country kirks – was erected.

From the Forres Elgin and Nairn Gazette, 25th April 1928.
*I’m always learning new words doing this.

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