Cairnfauld

Nearest town:
Banchory (7km W)
OS reference:
NO754941
OS sheets:
38, 45
Latitude:
57° 2' 14.47 N
Longitude:
2° 24' 19.44 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Cairnfauld (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

Fred Coles’ 1899 sketch of Cairnfauld Stone Circle showing the (then) five remaining stones.

Image credit: Fred Coles (1899)
LesHamilton
LesHamilton Jan 28, 2012
Image of Cairnfauld (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

This is a view from the south, looking over the gate to the two standing stones in the field. The top of the south stone is clearly visible on the right of the scene, standing proud of the dyke

LesHamilton
LesHamilton Jan 15, 2012
Image of Cairnfauld (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

This image, taken by mounting the camera on a monopod and holding it high above my head, gives, perhaps, the best possible view of this ruined stone circle.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton Jan 14, 2012
Image of Cairnfauld (Stone Circle) by Moth

Just about all there is.... (Another probable stone in the wall behind me.)

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Aug 27, 2003

Articles

Cairnfauld

LesHamilton
LesHamilton Jan 14, 2012

January 14, 2012

On a brilliant cold and frosty morning blessed with non-stop sunshine, I visited Cairnfauld (Crossroads) stone circle, just off the A957, 2 km south of the River Dee. With the aid of a monopod to hold my camera 3 metres above my head, it was possible to obtain this expansive view showing the 4 stones that remain visible.

At the extreme left of the photo is the north stone. In the centre foreground is the southwest stone, with, prostrate beside it, the displaced west stone that used to stand on the arc of the circle, a short distance off camera, to the left of the scene.

Photographs on Canmore show the latter, in situ, around a century ago.

Buried in the consumption dyke, on the other side of the gate, can be seen the south stone, leaning over at an angle. Farther along the dyke, presumably buried within it, is the fifth stone shown in Cole’s sketch. The dyke has clearly gained hugely in field clearance during the 20th century and I had no luck tracing the 5th stone. If there, it is now buried under boulders that have been heaped on top of it, somewhere close to the prominent tree growing out of the dyke.

This was the first time I had visited so early in the year, when crops and vegetation no longer obscured much of the scene.

Cairnfauld

drewbhoy
drewbhoy May 26, 2009

Cairnfauld is another ruined circle that is probably better known for the legend that surrounds it. (see Rhiannon’s folklore note, as well as cattle dying, stones seem to vanish as well) Travel south from Crathes on the A957 known in the North East as the Slug Road, crossing the River Dee, turning left at the Crossroads primary school. The circle, of which four stones (Burl says 4) are mean’t to remain (I could find only three), is at the top of the hill immediately behind the school. Some commentators describe this as an RSC but even in Coles (who said 5 stones) time this would surely have been a guess.

Cheered me up on a bad day! 24/5/09.

Folklore

Cairnfauld
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Sep 30, 2006

“The devastation of his cattle herd by disease fell ..upon the farmer
of-Cairnfauld, in Durris parish, following upon his removal of some of
the stones of the circle near-by.”

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

Sites within 20km of Cairnfauld

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