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Visited yesterday with archaeolgoy tutor who confirmed that this is indeed a later addition and not prehistoric. A nice touch though!
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It's been about 18 months since we last visited and rather stupidly, we went up last week, during the Easter holidays. I am not sure but I think this is the only stone circle I can think of that has an ice-cream van parked by it! It was heaving, as usual, which I was prepared for and once again I was infuriated by the folk who were climbing all over the stones.
Mark asked a group to show a bit of respect, as 2 teenagers kept climbing on the stones, shouting at their parents to take pictures of them ("this one will look great on Facebook" said mum!!)
I do appreciate that not everyone feels the same way about these places but it does bother me that they will climb all over the stones, with no regard to the damage they may be doing. Ah well, best just stick to the more remote places, then I won't get wound up!
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Visited in June 2006 and the weather was fantastically hot. We parked up and spent a good 30 minutes at the site before spotting a pair of eagles circling overhead! I think I may have been suffering from a combination of Hebridean heat stroke and prehistoric over-load because I really couldn't take this site in....it was just too confusing at the time. Absolutely spectacular though.
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The museum has a display about Portfield Camp, including some info about it's pre Iron-Age occupation. Artefacts are on display.
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Visisted May 2008.
White Cairn lies close to the A826, south of Aberfeldy. The whole of this landscape is littered with archaeology from across the ages, including hut circles, field sysytems and Pitcarmick type houses.
The cairn was excavated in the 1950s and was once surrounded by "a circle of free standing boulders set at irregualr intervals". Fragments of Beaker pottery were found in the cist.
Today it is a jumble of stones, the cist fallen in on itself but still cleary defined. Some beautiful pieces of quartz stone lie scattered around the site. It is believed the cairn originally measured approx 60 in diameter. The landscape is bleak and unforgicving and all the more intriguing, considering this place had been inhabited and farmed for thousands of years.
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Known locally as the Scurriestone, it is believed to be the site which formerly marked the point where the road diverges to the ford of the Dee and the ford of the Muick - scairth a ford.
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Came across this beaut as we were leaving Ballater on the long journey back home. We had tried to walk here the day before but had been deterred by the boy racers who were speeding around the country lanes (and the thought of a pint of cider!) so made sure we drove this way.
As we pulled up on the side of the road, another car arrived and 2 rather gleeful people leapt out and started taking pictures too. We had to head off so didn't have time to talk to them but I think they were possibly Dutch, so if you are reading this, sorry for being rude but we had a long drive ahead of us!!!
Anyway, this was just lovely, even though we didn't have the time to get up close and personal with the stone, it was such a lush and verdant setting and made for a perfect last site before heading back south.This post appears as part of the blog post " Aberdeenshire Antics" |
 
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This place blew me away (how many time have I said that in the past? This time I really mean it!). I had wanted to visit for years but everytime we planned a Welsh trip, we ended up changing our minds and heading to Scotland instead. So, I finally found myself here, almost by accident, having cut short a weekend/Hallowe'en trip to Chester. We arrived on the last day it was open for the season - it was quiet and almost deserted but the staff were more than happy to talk to us at length about the excavations and history of the site.
We had a nosey round the finds in the little "interactive" room before getting our hard-hats on and setting off into the mines. I was completely gob-smacked by the enormity of it all - each "corrider" we walked down had been mined out by hand (and bone) thousands of years ago, it is just mind-boggling. I am so used to seeing ancient monuments which have been built, mainly for reasons we can not begin to explain but here was real industry; a glimpse into the daily lives of our ancestors. Bloody incredible.
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We had ended up at the Great Orme unprepared; having spent the previous day in Chester and being horrified by its "Boozed Up Britain" feel on a Friday evening, headed off to N Wales to escape the drunken hordes. We didn't have our usual array of OS maps, walking boots and waterproofs and only had a couple of hours to spend, so couldn't do any real stoning, so this was an unexpected delight!
Having been blown away by the copper mines, we were then let through a gate and pointed in the right direction of this broken but beautiful site; all glimmering white stones under blue skies(and 2 donkeys for company!) it was just lovely.
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What an absolute beaut! After a lovely, cool walk through the woods, we came across this cracking little circle and were more than pleased we decided to come - the heat of the day was starting to get to us and all we had really wanted to do was head back to Ballater and have a pint of cider!
We had struggled to see how we could get here at first, missing the turning twice - we hadn't realised that we needed to park by the cemetary and then walk. We obviously need to go on a map-reading course!
We sat in the dappled sunlight and just drank it all in. This tiny circle is made of up of improbably large stones and we spent a good hour just pottering around, enjoying the peace and solitude of this site. This is the most perfect spot and is the most perfect, small circle.This post appears as part of the blog post " Aberdeenshire Antics" |
  
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We were staying in Insch for the night, so after a long drive up from Lancashire, stopping en-route to pick Vicky up in Glasgow, we finally saw Dunnideer around 7pm.
As we drove by this most beautiful of sites, a herd of red deer came running down the hill, following a huge stag. We pulled the car over and just watched, amazed by it all. There was just the railway track between us and them. The stag looked across at us, sniffed majestically into the wind and set off again, followed by the hinds. The most Scottish of moments I have ever witnessed!!
The B&B was pretty ropey but the setting was amazing - our room had a wee bench and table outside and we sat and watched the sunset and dusk fall over the hill. It was still light enough to read our maps at 11pm, with a bottle of wine and some bread and cheese to finish it off - just perfect.....This post appears as part of the blog post " Aberdeenshire Antics" |
 
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One way to avoid the problems of parking on the A4 lay-by and risking your wordly belongings, is to walk to WKLB from the village of East Kennet.
If you walk past the church (and the groovy house with the amazing wood carvings) and follow the bridle path, it takes about 15-20 mins and affords fabulous views of both East Kennet Long Barrow (on your left hand side) and Silbury.
This way, you approach WKLB from the "front", walking up the field directly opposite. Excellent.
When we visited last week, some idiot had chalked graffitti all over the stones. At least it was only chalk but it was still infuriating. Noticed the same thing at Woodhenge and was even more annoyed by the "peace and love" messages scrawled there.
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A note re: the Out of Hours Access.
If you can afford it, do it!
To see the stones up close and with only 12 other people present, as we did on Saturday evening, was a completely different experience to the standard "tourist" one.
Forget about the security man in his bright yellow coat, texting his friends and ignoring all questions; forget about the fact that they close the toilets and the cafe, so the fact that you may have paid TWICE as much as other visitors doesn't count for anything when you need to go to the loo or want a hot cuppa whilst you are waiting to go in; forget about the fact that you know EH are cashing in on the fact that some people feel a need to see more than a quick view from behind a guarded wire. Forget all that because.....
.....we spent an hour, walking among the stones, kiddy as kippers with a dozen like-minded folk and were able to take some fantastic photos. As the sun set, the golden glow of the sun against the blue sky was contrasted with the grey of snowclouds gathering. And just as the first few spots of sleety rain fell, a rainbow arched over the site. Just beautiful.
I got to nosey into the excavtion site (only shown to "day tourists" on a live feed in a marquee by the car park) and we could wander round freely (as long as we didn't stand on the stones or light any flames) enjoying this site in all of it's glory (almost)
I had been wary of visiting SH for a number of reasons but this was actually a very impressive visit and one which, whilst not ideal, is better than most get these days. As a birthday present, it was hard to beat.
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A recent move to a bizarre coastal village which gets cut off by the tide twice daily has meant my stone-hunting has become less frequent and also necessitated us selling the VW campervan (boo!) but.....I am still attempting to discover everything within my natural hunting grounds (N Lancs/Cumbria) and I keep being drawn further north to Scotland.......a recent trip to Aberdeenshire has helped develop a healthy obsession with RSCs!
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