Strichen stone circle revisited.

We took a friend out to lunch today and so as to work up an appetite we had a wander up to the old recumbent stone circle at Strichen. 

Recumbent stone circles are a unique feature of the Aberdeenshire landscape. These circles take the form of a ring of stones graded in height and usually with the two tallest to the south-west where they flank a huge prostrate or recumbent stone.The recumbent and its flankers framed the moon as it set or rose in the southern sky and it is believed that they allowed stone-age farmers to make lunar observations so as to establish seasonal calendars.

I blipped this recumbent stone circle back in 2012 and then noted that it has had a chequered existence having been built around 4000 BC, destroyed in 1960 AD and re-built in 1979. The story is well documented in the Aberdeenshire Archaeology Service Sites and Monuments Record -

"The circle was built from grey granite stones of local origin. All of them except the recumbent and its 2 flankers were pulled down by a tenant farmer in 1830. Mr Fraser, later Lord Lovat, the then landowner ordered them to be replaced, but this was done wrongly and the circle was re-erected in the wrong place to the South of the recumbent. A landscaped earthen bank was built around this new ring. In 1960 more agricultural "improvement" resulted in every one of the stones being removed. The recumbent and flankers were replaced but then taken away again during tree-felling operations in 1965. An excavation led by by Aubrey Burl in 1979 revealed that the original situation of the circle was immediately to the North although the recumbent and its flankers were in their prehistoric location. Quartz, flints and sherds of prehistoric pottery were discovered during the excavation. A cremation lay within the prehistoric bank to the NE of the recumbent. Several hammer stones and rubbing stones were found along with a cup and ring marked stone which was buried in a small stone-lined pit on the N periphery of the central area. After excavation the stones were replaced once again, this time in their original positions and the circle reconstructed."

If you look closely at the distant hillside of Mormond Hill between the 2 flankers you might just  be able to make out a giant white horse made using white quartz rocks in the late 1790s.