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Craigearn NJ716058 |
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| There are some big standing stones to see on the way to Balgorkar stone circle near Castle Frazer. Plenty of buses run from Aberdeen/Kemnay and in summer they go right up to the castle. If going by car take the B993 Kemnay/Alford road. A mile west of Kemnay turn left where the castle is signposted. Just round this corner the tall Lang Stane of Craigearn can be seen from the road, at the back of a garden on the left. Continue 1½ miles to the castle gates. From here you have a good view of Bennachie, and downslope ½ a mile to the north-west you should be able to see the massive monolith at Woodend, maybe 4 m high, shaggy with moss, topped by a small cairn. Access to this stone is tricky (on Cluny estate), on swampy low-lying ground near the Cluny Burn and surrounded by a plantation of young oaks, fenced in with barbed wire. |  |
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Balgorkar NJ715125 |
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| Go on up to where the road forks, follow it round to the left towards West Mains farm. On the way, you'll see Balgorkar stone circle at the far end of the field on the right. Ask permission at the farm to go up to the circle as there are usually cows or crops in the field. This is a beautiful circle of pale stones with golden lichen against a backdrop of mature beeches. It is an early one being set out on a true circle. Six stones, some of red granite are still standing. In the ploughed-out central cairn charcoal, cremated bone, and urn sherds were excavated and quartzite was found scattered around the recumbent stone. |  |
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| To the south-east near the edge of the same field are two tall outlying stones standing like gate posts, which may have been part of another circle. There are many more, isolated standing stones in the vicinity, most marked on the map but you could go on forever... Nearby Castle Fraser (NTS) is well worth a visit, with woodland walks, gardens and tearoom for hot, tired or lost circle hunters. | ||
Sunhoney NJ716058 |
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Sunhoney is one of the biggest, oldest (third millennium BC) and best preserved stone circles in Aberdeenshire. Go down the B9119 Aberdeen/Ballater road to Sunhoney Farm 1½ miles west of Echt (buses run to Echt and Midmar from Aberdeen). Ask permission at the farm to go up to the circle which is visible among trees behind the farm and across a field. It is overlooked by the superb heather-covered ramparts of the Barmekin hillfort of Echt. Maybe there is something in a name. | |
| Sunhoney, or its old name Seanhinny does sound better than some Aberdeenshire place-names like Wicketslap and Brownhill of Brokenmoan! This beautiful circle has 11 tall red granite stones still standing. The fallen, broken recumbent stone is clearly decorated with dozens of cup-marks; ancient star chart, lunar positions, map of water sources - nobody knows. The circle is set out on a truly circular plan, later ones being more ovoid, the stones being linked by a bank. In the central ringcairn cremated bone was found and fragments of a stone pot was found in a cist at the edge of the cairn. |  |
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Midmar Kirk NJ699064 |
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Recumbent stone circles were sometimes built in groups and are often inter visible. At Midmar Kirk 1½ miles to the west of Sunhoney, up the second road on the right, there is a stone circle in the kirkyard. When the kirkyard was set out this circle was grassed-in. It is all in pink granite with five stones still standing, plus the tall pointed flankers on either side of the long recumbent. The chock-stones holding the recumbent level are still visible underneath, and also some interesting possibly quite old graffiti and a masons mark can be seen on the top surface. This is one of many stone circles close to a kirk. Most of the others were buried, destroyed, built over or incorporated as building material in old circular kirk walls or foundations. | |
| Look through the trees to the east to see Sunhoney across the fields. There are more standing stones nearby, one in the field across the road west of the kirk and another tall stone (Balblair stone) 100 m into the woods to the north of the kirk. An old local tradition has it that this is the lone survivor of another stone circle. | ||