Frendraught

Nearest town:
Huntly (9km WSW)
OS reference:
NJ610428
OS sheet:
29
Latitude:
57° 28' 25.83 N
Longitude:
2° 39' 1.27 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Frendraught (Stone Circle) by stolinskie

One piece of the recumbent is visible outside the former circle, in Jan 2025

Image credit: stolinskie
stolinskie
stolinskie Jan 31, 2025
Image of Frendraught (Stone Circle) by stolinskie

The pieces of the recumbent are now quite hidden in Jan 2025

Image credit: stolinskie
stolinskie
stolinskie Jan 31, 2025
Image of Frendraught (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

This photograph shows the fallen, moss-covered east pillar, with the recumbent beyond.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton Aug 14, 2011
Image of Frendraught (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

This image shows the mass of fallen pillars and the recumbent stone at Frendraught. The camera was held aloft on a monopod to provide a better view since the stones were heavily screened by vegetation from ground level.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton Aug 14, 2011

Articles

Frendraught

stolinskie
stolinskie Jan 31, 2025

I went to Forgue and parked at the Walter Scott hall (in use but closed when I was there). I walked up past the school and into the woods. On reflection, it seems a strange place to put a school – right up a hill on the edge of a village – but I suppose back in the day there were a lot of kids coming down the hill from crofts and farms, unlike today. As a sidenote, there are two churches in Forgue and they are both placed on gorgeous sites across the burn from each other and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are built on top of more ancient monuments.

It was a nice walk up the hill through the trees, beech and pine. I walked past the “turn off” over the fence to Raich stone circle, which I visited on the way back. I carried on up the track with trees on one side and fields on the other, until using the OS app it was judged time to take a right down a track, sticking to the countours of the hill. This led me along a winding path until the OS app told me i was next to the circle, so I advanced 5 metres into a mess of fallen trees and torn up earth (see pix). Checked the app again, turned round and the quartz encrusted stone was right behind me! I was excited at first because I thoguht it was a massive chunk of quartz (as at Auchmaliddie, which I’d love to visit), but having look at the other pix here it seems to only have a wee bit on top. Pretty though and interesting that there was similar rock at Raich nearby.

But yeah the site was an impenetrable, indecipherable mess, with trees blocking everything from access to view. Frankly I see this as the responsibility of the land owner to sort out since they should be maintaining an ancient monument on “their” land. I don’t think these trees came down that recently and I noticed the track was being kept clear in any case, so there are people about. To sum up: I found the three stones of the smashed recumbent with difficulty, had a picnic, it started raining, I left. And that was it.

Frendraught

thelonious
thelonious Nov 11, 2013

10/11/2013 – We took the alternative path as suggested in Les’s fieldnotes (thanks). Starting from Forgue, it’s a nice mile or so walk through a wood to the circle. The trees look so lovely at this time of year and we even had some sunshine. The circle is not too hard to find just off the path. The recumbent looked quite sad with bits of it lying all around. It must have been quite fantastic in its day though. Flankers and a couple of other stones are still there, if a little hidden in the undergrowth. I liked this circle. Not a must see but a fine way to spend a morning.

Frendraught

LesHamilton
LesHamilton Aug 14, 2011

You can drive directly to the Bogcoup junction, taking the estate road from NJ627422. I found Drewbhoy’s description confusing, perhaps because there is now a sizeable plantation of young conifirs screening the mature forest.

I followed the track (on foot) northwards, just past the edge of the field and through a gate on the left. This led to a tunnel of debranched trees that followed the field edge northwestwards. At the end of the tunnel, follow the field edge for a short distance (southwest) and, after just 50 metres or so, look out for a small plantation of much younger trees in a clearing to your right. Walk straight through the plantation for a couple of minutes until you arrive at a fence, with the wide forestry road beyond.

Cross the fence and follow the road leftward for 100 metres. The road now turns sharply left at right angles, following the plantation boundary. Continue for another 100 metres, and you will see the remains of Frendraught Stone Circle on the very edge of the forest on your right hand side.

An alternative path starts in the village of Forgue. Take the road signposted to Forgue School and park in the village hall car park. Walk up to the school where the road continues as a forest track. After 2 km, this track takes you to the same gate as mentioned above.

One bonus of this route is that you can make a short diversion along the way to visit Raich Stone Circle.

Frendraught

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 4, 2009

It is best to ask permission from the Frendraught House secretary before looking as shooting parties are often in the area. The chequered history of the house is well worth discovering.

From the office climb the hill until the road ends at its Bogcup junction. Turn right, walk 500 yards, turn right again. Keep going downhill and the path will gradually veer north into the woods. The remains of the ruined circle will come into view as the track leads straight to the recumbent. This has been battered, weathered, cracked and most likely moved but defiantly it remains along with it’s fallen flankers. About 50 yards a stone from the northern arc of the circle can be seen. Unfortunately nothing else can be seen as the vegetation covers it although there is plenty cairn material lying about. Take good boots.

As said elsewhere when making enquiries it was obvious that the secretary and other staff didn’t have a clue about the existance of this circle.

Visited June 08.

Folklore

Frendraught
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 16, 2009

The RCAHMS record linked to below suggests that local people once knew the site as “The Covenanters Preaching Stones” (exact punctuation up to you I think) – the Covenanters, for historically ignorant sassenachs like myself, being 17th century Scottish Presbyterians.

But I wonder whether the stone(s) here is also the one in the following story:

One [tradition still floating about in the district] relates how, on one occasion, a brawny Highlander had occasion to pass the house [of Frendraught]. He was observed by the lady, who remarked to her husband that he was the prettiest man she had ever seen. This remark led to a quarrel, and her husband, filled with jealous anger, is said to have rushed from the house and followed the unsuspecting Highlander, whom he slew, and buried under a large stone near the hill top.

It seems likely, does it not. ??

From ‘Some stone circles in central Aberdeenshire’ by James Ritchie, PSAS 1917, volume 51, p30-47.

Sites within 20km of Frendraught

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