"This is the third instalment of what went on during this wonderful week in Aberdeenshire, and the variety of sites and experiences that were had. Try clicking on the pictures and some will open up to show you a larger image" - Ros.

Members present were, Maryrose Price, Ros Briagha, Maria Hayden, Jon Appleton, Grahame Gardner, Barry Hoon & Oliver Perceval.

Day 4

Tuesday 26 October: We started the day with a little bit of spontaneous labyrinth creation, walking a frosty path on the front lawn, which came out well, and could be seen, and photographed, from the fire escape. We all then piled into Jason’s tourer, an 8 seater Toyota bus in which he does tours of local sites, and went off with him for the day. Our first call was Broomhill (Breemie) {NJ 769110} at the circle he has made, on the land of a local farmer, who had a 30% increase in his crops after it was built! He did it Beltane 2004, at the time of an eclipse, which I found very interesting, as I feel that eclipses are gateways when extraordinary stuff can happen, and I made my maze at the Valley in the two weeks between a solar and lunar eclipse. This is a pretty big circle, around 40 metres across, with a huge recumbent and flankers, but not with a ring cairn. It felt as if this is going to become quite a local meeting place, with a folk festival planned here for next year.

Barry, Grahame, Maria, Maryrose, Jon, Oliver, Ros. Click here for more pictures of this site

Easter Aquorthies {NJ 732208} has been lovingly restored and is really beautiful. There are a number of different types of stone here, all different colours and textures, standing in an almost perfect circle, with slight signs of a ring cairn in the centre. The stones have been set into a stone and turf bank, making the interior slightly bowl-shaped. We all liked this one, and did quite a lot of dowsing, and feeling for the fifth band throw -off point that some dowsers find.

After this we went to Archeolink, a local theme park, with a new RSC in its grounds, and had lunch there (Grahame: I didn’t see the circle, but they were building a pretty good wicker man for their Samhain festival!), then on to Dunnideer {NJ 612282} a stunning place, which is quite a focus of local leys and very striking visually. There is a group of three hills, standing out in a flattish area, and this one has a tower on it that, though ruined, still has great presence. There are vitrified rocks here, where the stone seems to have melted, and Jon and I speculated on whether they might have been a form of coal. It is a good climb, perfect for walking off the sticky toffee pudding!

Barry, Grahame, Maria, Maryrose, Jon, Oliver, Ros.

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