Cothiemuir Wood

Nearest town:
Inverurie (15km ENE)
OS reference:
NJ617198
OS sheet:
37
Latitude:
57° 16' 2.25 N
Longitude:
2° 38' 6.37 W

Images

Image of Cothiemuir Wood (Stone Circle) by ruskus

...slightly ‘bendy’ pano of Cothiemuir Wood recumbent & flankers.

Image credit: ruskus
ruskus
ruskus Dec 19, 2018
Image of Cothiemuir Wood (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

Looking along the recumbent... riding an earth-bound submarine..

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jan 28, 2016
Image of Cothiemuir Wood (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

The central(ish) cist still possesses a capstone...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jan 28, 2016
Image of Cothiemuir Wood (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

Extreme contrasts of highlight and shade within Cothiemuir Wood’s clearing...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jan 28, 2016
Image of Cothiemuir Wood (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

Simply one of the most vibey major ‘circles I’ve been to in these Isles. The recumbent and flankers are top left.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jan 28, 2016
Image of Cothiemuir Wood (Stone Circle) by Chris

The sun was pretty but there was no warmth in it.....

Image credit: Chris Lodge
Chris
Chris Nov 12, 2009
Image of Cothiemuir Wood (Stone Circle) by Chris

The entire circle in its frosty glade....

Image credit: Chris Lodge
Chris
Chris Nov 12, 2009

Articles

Cothiemuir Wood

Burial ground proposal angers local people

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Apr 22, 2005

Native Woodland, a company from Edinburgh, want to develop a natural burial ground at Cothiemuir Hill – within 15 yards of the scheduled ancient monument. They have not yet received planning permission for the scheme, but it’s provoked an backlash from local people, who are forming an action group. The company wants to offer “rights of burial” for ashes in plots laid out in concentric rings around the ancient site, and full interments in a dedicated grassland area to the east of the stone circle.

The campaign against the burial ground plan is being led by Jo Stover, of nearby Auchnagathle Farm. She said: “We are a close-knit community here and I think that is why people are quite appalled and really quite upset about what is being planned. This is a commercial development which just doesn’t belong here. Local people are extremely alarmed and angry about what is being proposed. It has no sensitivity to the local area and the people here – quite the opposite. It would encourage the use of a remote graveyard by persons who have no connection to this area or to the people here.”

She added: “The company claims the burial site will not physically damage the stone circle, but it will be changed for ever by this development.”

The burial scheme is being backed by the local laird, Malcolm Forbes, the Master of Forbes, whose family has owned the estate incorporating the land surrounding the stone circle for about 600 years. Ian Walls, the director of Native Woodland, was unavailable for comment yesterday. His letter to Aberdeenshire Council, in support of the planning application, curiously states: “The main objective behind our proposals for the site is for the change of use to have as little impact on the landscape as is practically possible. We aim for the changes to be imperceptible.”

summarised from the article at news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=370602005

Cothiemuir Wood

stolinskie
stolinskie Mar 21, 2025

After sitting in the sunshine for a while absorbing the lessons of Old Keig RSC, I decided to give myself another chance to find Cothiemuir Wood circle. I had stupidly managed to come out without both a charged phone and a OS map, so I was a bit in the dark. I’d already got as far as the sign off the road for the natural burial site, which since it used an image of the recumbent and flankers was probably a fair bet, so I went back towards Cothiemuir from Old Keig (which is pretty close) and impulsively decided to park on an unused track just off the road at the bend before the burial site turnoff. I wandered up though lovely trees and suddenly spied a flanker standing tall!

It’s a beautiful site, nowadays standing in an area of chopped trees, funny how that really changes things in photos but in reality it probably always had a great ambience. Trees still visible and of course the hill, not the water – I always forget to look for the water, which is often nearby. Of course that was down the hill beside the road and the old granary.

The flankers were great! They are pink granite and very impressive in person. The recumbent is huge and had a mad face in it. I was at first puzzled by the slab in the middle with burnt wood nestling underneath it, but that of course was the cist.

I had been there for a while when two other people appeared, which made me realise how lucky I am in Aberdeenshire to mostly have circles to myself. Still I didn’t mind to share the space since I was thinking to head off; we said hello and one woman chatted with me about stone circles. She seemed quite knowledgeable so I enquired if she knew this website and she said she doesn’t really use the internet which I have to admit surprised me.

In this day and age, I’d find it very hard to research sites without this site and the internets more broadly. She told me she was a therapist and perhaps unsurprisingly she then told me the stones have healing properties – I don’t necessarily disagree. In her opinion, Cothiemuir has a gentle healing energy, Old Keig more aggressive, Sunhoney is the best for healing, Monymusk is for making decisions, Midmar has hard energy, Aikey Brae is a good one as is Berrybrae.

This made me wonder if my habit of trying to see two or three RSCs in an afternoon is the right approach; I do remember having a very nice relaxing time at Sunhoney and I would say Midmar once felt pretty scary visiting at midnight, however I also do think we all take (and give) different things to the stones. In any case it was an interesting spring equinox conversation. She told me confidently that the beautiful flankers had been quarried at Bennachie and most neighbouring stone circles had some pink in them. I do hope the two women had a great healing sesion after I left. I certainly enjoyed finding Cothiemuir and next time I’d park at the burial site, which is I think is probably what they did.

Cothiemuir Wood

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 12, 2012

I’ve deleted my previous (dodgy) images of Cothiemuir from 2004... they tell me – and presumably, anyone else – little about what it is like to be here. An irony, perhaps, since the visitor – nay, the honoured guest – assumes this woodland clearing is merely the environment chosen for this shattered RSC’s retirement.... and far removed from that of its ‘working life’. Yeah, trees and a’gazing at Madame de la Luna are mutually exclusive, are they not?

Needless to say Cothiemuir didn’t want to be photographed today. Far too much light contrast prevalent for this amateur. So I tried to capture the mood instead... something as nebulous as the clouds which manifestly refuse to make an appearance in the sky today.... then gave up and simply did as I was bid by the vibe. Lie back in the long grass and.... do nothing. Much to the apparent bemusement of a lizard basking upon one of the shattered, sun drenched orthostats. Yeah, he/she soon sussed I was there for reasons other than obtaining a rather small handbag. I mean ‘man bag’. To be honest I don’t know what I mean... Cothiemuir Wood is enchanting this late afternoon and rational thought seems, well, irrational, I guess. So much so that my recent decision to head towards Strathpepper tomorrow is discarded. Why not Schiehallion? Er, yeah. Why not?

One middle-aged woman walking her dog wanders through the circle... other than that I’m left to ponder the relationship the frankly magnificent recumbent and flankers have with the light that plays upon this corner of Aberdeenshire today. With utter wonder. In fact so fine, so beguiling is the atmosphere that it is easy to forget that this was a deadly serious structure. Somebody was interned within the central cist. No messing, this was – hey, is – for real. No Damien Hirst bollocks. Yet there is no feeling of foreboding. No shadow of retribution hangs over the traveller penetrating the sacred enclosure like the proverbial ‘Sword of Damocles’. Just the feeling that there are few places I’d rather be right now. Cothiemuir may be ‘camera shy’, but it’s certainly no Garbo. Oh no.

So... I wouldn’t say Cothiemuir Wood is Aberdeenshire’s finest stone circle. But I’ve yet to find another that I rather spend a few hours at, you know?

Cothiemuir Wood

Chris
Chris Nov 12, 2009

First time visit to Cothiemuir Wood, I have no idea why I didn’t come before.

Walking up from the small car park from the burial ground it’s only a couple of hundred yards along a forest path, yet totally isolated. The wood was green, but because the circle is treeless the frost had settled, which meant that with the early morning sun it was glowing white in a sea of green. My meagre snaps didn’t come close to capturing it.

Too cold to linger long, there is plenty to see and the site is reminiscent of Loudon Wood and Tyrebagger – not restored, but enough left to see and an overwhelming sense of the ancient.

Essential visit.

Don’t worry about the burial ground either – it’s well away and from what I can see will only enhance the nearby area and keep it green & open. Plus it’s small car park make it even easier to access the circle. Drive on up and follow the route on the sign.

Cothiemuir Wood

Jane
Jane Jul 30, 2006

Set in an Arcadian woodland glade, this is a monstrous site! The flankers are incredibly tall and pointy in opposing ways but made to seem small by the huge bulk of the recumbent stone, which is round and streamlined like a whale. With insects whirring and the smell of hot pine and warm forest this was a Loved it!

The woodland is now being used a natural burial ground, with plots for cremations in the wood (though not within a certain distance of the stones) and plots for whole body burials at the edge of the wood. I can’t think of a more appropriate resting place.

Cothiemuir Wood

greywether
greywether Mar 22, 2005

This has to have the most beautifully proportioned recumbent and flankers of all the RSCs.

The flankers (pushing 3m) are amongst the tallest and the recumbent is over 4m long. Together they make a wonderful composition – especially given the bulging shape of the recumbent.

It would be great to see them against the horizon but, sadly, the trees get in the way.

The recumbent has four cupmarks.

Enough circle stones survive to give the line of the circle. The recumbent and flankers are way off this circle line suggesting that they may have been built first using a wider community effort leaving the local community to add the smaller circle stones. Other circles eg Loanhead of Daviot exhibit a similar feature.

Access. Just to add to the previous comments, another way in is from the most southerly part of the wood. Vehicle tracks from there lead straight to the circle. No fences, gates etc.

Visited 16 March 2005

Cothiemuir Wood

I
Ian Murray Jul 31, 2003

A few days after the midsummer solstice and my first visit to this magickal site. Coloured chalk symbols on the flankers and on several other of these seven upright stones. Some may object to this, but for me it enhanced a remarkable place and as long as it’s subtle, then the rain will wash all away soon enough.

Cothiemuir Wood

C
chrisugden Mar 18, 2002

we were out at cothiemuir wood at the weekend. what a wonderful place. deep, thick fog blowing amongst the trees added to the whole atomephere.
this is an observation and question. there seemed to have been quite a bit of work having gone in and around the site. all the small treelings have been chopped, the area between the kist and recumbant has0 .0.be0.e00.n 0..0.dug up and the sods replced, and the whole area looked like it had been cleared quite recntly (3-6months?) i don’t think this was just the sparse time of year (march), though i could be wrong. maybe someone had been survaying it? does anyone know of anything that’s gone on there recently?

Cothiemuir Wood

a23
a23 Aug 26, 2001

This is very near to Old Keig and makes a special ending to a day out. The circle is easy to locate – assuming you have an OS map that is- simply park on the forest track at the first “crossroads” and head north into the field, going along the wall west – then keep going straight ahead thru the trees til you come upon the circle. A wonderful place – the stones of an impressive size and a huge recumbent which is almost cylindrical in shape. The trees/bushes/other foliage all around add to the magical feel – you almost expect to see fauns and satyrs coming out of the trees. Birdsong, nature at her most tranquil...I sat near the kist for a while and played a bit of Pink Lady Lemonade by AMT – heaven!!

Cothiemuir Wood

Merrick
Merrick Aug 7, 2000

(notes from inside the circle, 2 July 00)

Finding this circle is pretty easy despite the lack of any path and its being surrounded with a thick wood of pine trees; it’s a crest-of-hill circle, so keep heading uphill from whatever direction you come in, and you’ll come to the clearing at the top.

The extraordinary thing about Cothiemuir Wood that makes it an essential visit is the shape of the flankers. They’re two opposed wedges, one pointing up and one pointing down, with an elliptical recumbent in between. They look like the buttons for a massive megalithic lift (megaliftic?), as if you could press one or the other to go up or down, and the words ‘lift coming’ would illuminate on the recumbent. The flankers have clearly been tooled with a lot of graft to get them looking this way. Three other stones stand, others lie around where they fell, and there’s an intact stone kist at the centre.

To the north of the stones there’s only a few trees before recent felling clears the view. Not quite enough to actually see the landscape, but – again, if the trees weren’t here – we would definitely see Druidstones a mile or so away. To the north-east we’d see Corrie Hill (clearly the same root word at Cothie-muir, as well as Correen Hills, Corrstones, etc).

Mercifully, despite the dense planting of these woods, the precinct of this large circle has been left clear. If the trees weren’t all round the edge this circle would look west to The Barmkyn, though a south-eastern promontory of The Barmkyn would, I think, make Old Keig circle out of sight. Perhaps my mapreading and calculations are wrong and it’d be mindblowingly in sight.

The Barmkyn is, by implication, a sacred hill; it’s also clearly the same name as Barmekin Hill away to the south-east, the hill that bears down on Sunhoney circle. Both hills are more or less the same size and shape. I have no idea what the root word of their names means and would be grateful if anyone could shed some light on this. Is it to do with the fact that both hills had ancient forts on top? Or is that fact a sign, as Julian Cope suggests, of earlier reverence as sacred hills and the name is to do with that?

Cothiemuir Wood

G
Gazza Jun 30, 2000

Situated near to several other sites, this is a must-see mofo of a circle. Walking up through the tightly-packed conifers, I got the feeling the forest was imposed on this landscape, not invited, and certainly not inviting me to walk through it. The most oppressive forest i’ve experienced in all my wanderings by a long way. Just as I was going to give up, the tall flankers rear between the trees, almost the same colour but smooth and rounded. They are huge – and the recumbent is a massive length. the whole monument just shouts “take notice!“, and that’s what I did. Most of the stones are there, even the central cist, but the views ... no more, thanks to those trees. Even so, the peace in this clearing is palpable, even more so due to the surrounding, brooding forest. A stunner.

Folklore

Cothiemuir Wood
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Sep 13, 2012

Unlike many of the circles, this one, for some reason at present unknown to me, enjoys an extended reputation and is the centre of attraction to large numbers of the residents in the locality on a certain day or days in autumn.

Extremely vague, it could be anything. But it seems now is the season to visit. From Fred Coles’ report on the stone circles of the NE of Scotland, in PSAS v35 (1900-1).

Folklore

Cothiemuir Wood
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon May 25, 2004

“In the large and almost complete circle at Cothiemuir, in the parish of Keig, the recumbent stone is of peculiar rounded shape, and has numerous hollows upon its surface, caused by weathering. Two of these on the outside, rather larger than their fellows, are known as the ” Devil’s Hoofmarks,” their shape resembling the mark of a cloven hoof.”

From: Ritchie, J., Folklore of Aberdeenshire Stone Circles, in Proc. Soc. Ant. of Scotland, LX, 1926, pp304-313.

Miscellaneous

Cothiemuir Wood
Stone Circle
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Aug 12, 2015

Cothiemuir Hill – Aberdeenshire

Cothiemuir Hill natural burial ground is located on the Forbes Estate in rural Aberdeenshire and is rich in wildlife, history and heritage.

Lying at the western end of the Lord Throat’s road, the ancient wooded hill rises from verdant land, through a belt of deciduous mixed woodland including Scots Pine, to a Neolithic stone circle that crowns it crest. Flanking the hill, beneath the slopes of Bennachie, newly planted trees shelter the burial glades. here, plots for natural burial or the internment of ashes can be reserved, giving mourners the space to connect with nature, and more importantly the people buried there.

From the pamphlet advertising natural burials.

(also a couple of nice photos of the stone circle)

Miscellaneous

Cothiemuir Wood
Stone Circle
greywether
greywether Apr 11, 2005

Interesting chronology point following Bradley’s recent excavations. Revised from Canmore.

“... three small trenches were excavated at the Cothiemuir Wood stone circle, Donside. The trenches were designed to assess the structural sequence of the monument....

A low cairn, or platform of rubble, was constructed on a flat hilltop, which may have been scarped level. The platform was open at the centre and revetted on the exterior with an exterior buttress of rubble, and on the interior by a bank of massive boulders.

There may have been a cist in the middle of the site where the filling of an unrecorded excavation contains a number of burnt stones.

The recumbent stone circle was a later addition to the monument and the sockets of two of the monoliths could be seen to cut through the structure of the cairn...

The sequence is similar to that observed at Tomnaverie.”

Sites within 20km of Cothiemuir Wood

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