Chapel O’Sink

Also known as:
Ark Stone
Nearest town:
Inverurie (7km ENE)
OS reference:
NJ706189
OS sheet:
38
Latitude:
57° 15' 35.52 N
Longitude:
2° 29' 14.71 W
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Chapel O’Sink

drewbhoy
drewbhoy May 25, 2009

This is a hard place to find as all that is left are the low stones of a kerb cairn in amongst chopped down trees. Some have suggested that this was a RSC, the Ark Stone sits about 50 meters to the north.

Enter Inverurie by going thru Port Elphinstone cross the River Don and head west on the Burnhervie road. Follow the directions to hamlet of the same name, go thru it and keep going until Denhead farm. Take the road going up the hill, west, and turn left again at the top. The second track to the right, west, leads to Newton farm. The circle is some 50 meters behind the bungalow at the tracks end. Some photos on other sites/maps place the circle in a wood but the trees, formerly the Boghead Wood, have been cut down making underfoot conditions well dodgy. (in Aug 08 there might have been trees planted recently) To find the Ark stone head towards the fence turn right and follow the fence until the stone is reached. Nowadays it is reflective and peaceful place to visit.

Visited August 08.

Folklore

Chapel O’Sink
Cairn(s)
fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Oct 15, 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.
A short distance, some 200 yards, from the Chapel o’ Sink lies the Ark Stone, very likely the recumbent stone of the circle, which would help to account for its unusual name”.

Source
Folklore of the Aberdeen Stone Circles and Standing Stones by James Ritchie
Proceedings of The Society of Antquities of Scotland. Vol LX.20
May 10 1926

Folklore

Chapel O’Sink
Cairn(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon May 25, 2004

Burl has suggested this is the remains of a recumbent stone circle, but more recent thought (see CANMORE) suggests it was a cairn which has been progressively robbed out, leaving some of the large kerbstones left at the edge.

According to Grinsell, (quoting from a 1901 source in his ‘Folklore of Prehistoric Sites..’) “in early days an attempt was made to build a chapel within the stone circle, but.. each night the walls sank out of sight and the building began anew every morning, until eventually the unlucky work was abandoned in despair.”
It’s no good trying to Christianise these places you know.

Not far away at NJ705190 is the ‘Ark Stone’, suggested by the antiquarian source above to be the lost recumbent stone of the circle, but boringly stated by modern archaeology to be a perfectly natural (though ark-shaped) granite boulder.

Sites within 20km of Chapel O’Sink

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