Hi, Grahame here again, with more of my thoughts on the Aberdeenshire trip...

Now that the main business of the weekend (our AGM) and the workshops were over, we were into fun time for the remainder the week. the sheer quantity of stone rings was what had attracted us to Aberdeenshire in the first place, and we planned to take advantage of the time and squeeze in as many as possible in the days to come. Our numbers were small enough that we could squeeze into two cars, which was a relief as we had originally thought about hiring a minibus for the week, which would have been a considerable expense.

Druidstones: Dave was very concerned about the state of this site, as it should have been under the protection of the estate; he promised to report the condition to the local Historic Scotland warden. It definitely looked like there was deliberate burning taking place in the ring to try and destroy the stones.
I dowsed an energy ley leading off from the circle and through the ruinous corner of a nearby cottage, putting me in mind of the story of the Irish farmer who had to cut a slice from the corner of his cottage because it obstructed a ‘fairy path’. This felt very similar. The picture shows the view back down the ley - you can see the circle in the background.

The cottage would have made a perfect wee “but & ben”, apart from the complete lack of access to it!

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Culsh souterrain: On my previous visit with Ros, I also got a strong impression of significant rituals and rites of passage taking place in the souterrain, and found that its entrance is possibly oriented to the major standstill moonrise. I have never been convinced by the 'official' explanations that these are simply 'storage cellars' - I think they were much more multipurpose!

It still has a strong atmosphere, which we helped with a bit of toning and chanting on this visit, although we were keen to press on to Tomnaverie so didn't spend too much time there.


Tomnaverie is still one of my favourite places thanks to its commanding position in the valley and views of distant Lochanagar, and I always feel a responsibility towards the circle since Ros and I had worked with it just after its restoration in 2000 (see my article The Tomnaverie Experience). I try to visit it whenever I’m in the area, and it’s good to see how it has developed since the restoration. Once the quarry is filled in the landscape will look much more natural. It feels stronger every time I visit, and it’s definitely a circle that you can work with energetically. For once, I managed to get some reasonable pictures of it, including a wonderful ‘mug’ shot of the face in the recumbent.


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Aboyne circle: It is not a recumbent, and is so different from other sites in the area that it has been suggested that it is a 19th century folly built to give some atmosphere to the nearby Aboyne Castle. It certainly feels entirely different to other sites, and is so small that it might almost have been built for personal use. There are rather large gaps in the east and west, which may indicate missing stones, but I have dowsed an energy ley running through here, and it may be that stones were omitted so that the flow of energy was not interrupted for whatever reason. Oliver knew people in the castle, and loped off over a ha-ha and across the fields to see if he could rustle up a cup of tea for us all, but with no luck unfortunately. So it was back to the digs, via a stop at the supermarket for supplies.
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