Homeward bound from the Lonach Gathering.

Clustered in the foothills of the Grampians there are a group of remarkable stone circles, the recumbent stone circles of north-east Scotland. They are to be found only in NE Scotland and in Eire in Cork and Kerry. They date back to about 4000 BC. 

The 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. Sometimes there is a small ring-cairn within the circle, containing cremated human bones. 

This recumbent circle lies in the graveyard of Midmar Parish Church. It's not often that one finds a ritual site from 6000 years ago that is still in use!

The purpose of the recumbent stone has intrigued antiquarians for centuries. In 1527 Hector Boece, the first Principal of Aberdeen University, wrote of them, in his History of Scotland - 

"In the times of King Mainus .... huge stones were erected in a ring and the biggest of them was stretched out on the south side to serve for an altar, whereon were burned the victims in sacrifice to the Gods."

Modern archaeologists would prefer functions to do with celestial orientations and suchlike but I rather like the idea of a good old-fashioned sacrifice!

The "extra" is a fungus that I have never seen before. It was growing around the root of a Scots pine. I think that it is Phaeolus schweinitzii, commonly known as velvet-top fungus, or dyer's polypore