The Stone Circle

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>>>  Aaaaa-Wwupa-wwupa-wwupwwupwwupwwup-wupa-wupa  <<<

Through a sleep-sticky eyelid I begin to see yellow sow-thistle flowers and blades of grass right up close as simultaneously the chopper blades bludgeon the sky into submission. The machine noise wapa-wapa and the little yellow flowers and the grass dance and swirl in a synaesthetic maelstrom of abstract, yet urgent, contaminated pools of unfathomable - just fathomable? - meaning. Is it that a vast similitude interlocks all things? For a moment, the answer seems graspable - it has shape and flavour, momentum and surface.
But then not; I cannot hold it, I bubble up to break the surface tension from the mind's unknown region through the many fragments of my semi-lucid broken dream, and into increasing consciousness. Sunlight filtering lens-flaring first through treetops, then eyelashes in the borderland edgezone between sleep and wakefulness. Sunlight-warmed shirt material a perfectly cozy mantle, conducting an amelioration of the sun's radiation to my chest - lovely. The perfect warmth. The grass and flowers beneath my head. Oh! - the small tough dog sleeping curled against my hip, her robust muscly trunk, shorthair short legs short tail. Not my dog - I have no dog - but she's content to snooze and dream her doggy afternoon companionably outdoors beside me on this summer day. Heartening. But wupawupawup and I'm awake now. Toes wriggling, shoulders rotating, swallowing. Awake. I tut and lever myself up on one elbow and, seeing that my human travelling-companion (who is my wife) appears to be waking from a similar semi-sleep, I scan the sky for the helicopter which broke me from my indescribable dreaming.

>>>  awup wup wup wup wup  <<<

We've been here about half an hour, maybe? Dunno. I was sort-of asleep. There it is: a dark dragonfly, a dun blot in the baby-blue, blare-farting its way towards us, neither particularly low nor high over the fields of cows and their calves, sheep and their lambs. It's a tiny little four-seater thing. The four seats in its ovoid body leave little room for the audibly straining engine which only just powers the twin rotors suspended atop a skylon above the cramped accommodation. We can make out not only its smirchy chemical trail but also its shimmery heat exhaust above us now. We can't quite make out the crammed-in people on-board, but we know that they can see us, framed as we are within the circumference of a megalithic stone circle - the reason we all are here now, today: I, my wife, our new friend the little dog, and the chopper pilot and passengers - we're all here because of the stones.

On a summer afternoon the ancient stones - exactly ten miles from our door as the mountain-biker cycles - are a secret destination not too far from the edge of the town, but not too near either. Encircled by prominence hills; Fayre, Drum, Beans, Gairn, Kings and West; all hide the stones from our town and its arteries and ribbon-developed dormitory exurbs. Disused railway track-bed, farm access roads and ancient drovers' routes all link together to conduct you to this ancient site if you know how and where to look. The final metalled stretch of road on our ad-hoc route exists solely to allow vehicle access to a valve loop on one of the major gas transmission pipelines which transect the county with their high pressure hydrocarbon cargo, then the road gives out to rutted puddled farm track, and then we are here.

The stones are next plot along to a working smallholding farmyard from where a little dog trots to greet us every time we visit. She is a Jack Russell terrier, and, living the unrestrained outdoor life she does, she seems to exhibit none of the nervous fervour of her city-dwelling kin. If you show an interest, she will show you the stones - little paws scrabbling up the menhirs, jumping one to next - as if she is a keen custodian, eager that you appreciate your location, she shares her territory with you willingly and graciously. If you sit cross-legged on the grass, she will sit in your lap and look into your eyes. If you recline, she will lean against your body. If you lie down on a hot sunny day, she will lie down against you and shut her eyes.

In that earlier hour, after cross-leggedly looking at the stones, drinking coffee from a flask, eating sandwiches from a napkin, I had first reclined Roman-like on elbow while chatting about this-and-that with my wife, then - as the conversation ranged wide and speculative, slower and slower the contemplative comments came - and we both lay back secure in our life-long mutually companionable warmth. Then I shut my eyes, the little dog lay down too - her flank solid against my hip, and my world became the keening of the buzzards mixed with the mewing of the red kites and the buzzing of the dragonflies mingled with the low moaning of the cattle. The dappled sun through the trees played abstract on my eyelids. The warm blades of grass beneath my shoulders and the soft turf beneath my head carried me off...

Until...

>>>  Aaaaa-Wwupa-wwupa-wwupwwupwwupwwup-wupa-wupa  <<<

"It's that fucking helicopter again!" We had been disturbed by it more than once before. Birthday-present flying lessons, touristic treats, real-estate promotional ariel photography, international oil-tycoons indifferently looking down upon the city where they've invested some small proportion of their capital - who knows? One thing's for sure, that little chopper doesn't actually go anywhere. It goes up - it flies around a bit, twenty minutes or so - then it lands back where it started. Theres a little private heliport nearby and the pilots always - always - overfly the stone circle. "Here it comes. Ready...?" I ask my spouse, "Yup." She's on her feet and brushing grass from her long braided hair.

>>>  wwupwwupwwupwwup-wupa-wupa wup wup wup  <<<

Together, as synchronous as the rotors above, we wave one arm each in great arcs, grinning like idiots up at the tiny aircraft, like everso lovely everso middle-class children waving at a train in an everso British Enid Blyton adventure. Then, we bare our teeth and snarl and frown, turning our open hands into the everso British V-sign of pissoffness and flicking them up and down repeatedly.
"Yay! Faaaaak offffff!" we chorus-bellow at the top of our lungs, before collapsing in each other's arms to our knees, laughing until we can't breathe, the little dog circling us and looking up into our eyes.

>>>  wupa-wupa a wwupwwupwwupwwup  <<<

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March Stones 32 to 36 ABD

Aha, right. Back to the March Stones.

Aberdeen's cultural histobunk periodical "The Leopard" published a splendid and helpful article titled "Aberdeen's Stones of Time" by Aberdeen City Council's Chris Croly. Chris also published the council's "March Stones Trail" leaflet (pdf) which has been indispensable as we've sought out these sometimes enigmatic artifacts.

Part of the article in The Leopard highlights the ancient aspect of the stones, some of the older 'earth-fast' stones significantly pre-dating the later 'ABD' engraved stones. We've seen some of these more ancient stones already, notably the large glacial erratic 'earth-fast' stones at nos. 16 and 18, nos. 23 and 25 and no. 31.

Finding these more ancient stones is somehow especially satisfying - you get a feeling of achievement from researching the locations, tramping across the rough ground, jumping burns, sinking into bogs, getting snagged on barbed wire and seeing the site (and sight!) that many before over the last 500 years and longer have used as a significant marker of property, propriety, politics and populace. Indeed, stones 26 to 30 sit on the boundary of the unitary authority (Aberdeen City Council) to this day. But while the stones have long-since been supplanted as practical boundary markers by the growth of the city and improvements in surveying and cartographic technology, there they still sit, waiting for us to discover and use that discovery as a construct around which to build a psychogeographical journey.

We were aware that other towns and cities have historical stone boundary markers, and so we were delighted by Richard Miles' fascinating BBC programme "Ancient Worlds". In episode one, Miles tells us about the very first cities which developed from 5000 BC in the middle east's "fertile crescent" between the Persian Gulf and the Levant. From the very first cities of Sumer (Sumeria) these cities and their successors marked their limits with splendid boundary stones.

This one's Babylonian, about 3000 years old. The pictographic and cuniform inscription is the title deed to the land, as well as its boundary marker. "The Establisher of the Boundary Forever"

Image courtesy of the British Museum. Many thanks.

Not as ancient or explicitly magnificent, Aberdeen's boundary stones 32 ABD and 33 ABD are found in the fold between Brimmond Hill and Elrick Hill. These retain both the more ancient 'earth-fast' stones and the more recent engraved 'ABD' numbered stone markers.

Ancient and more recent.

Saucer-hole and witter holes

The saucer hole is full of water, and has a red tinge.

While scholars can read and fully understand the explicit cuniform and pictogram inscriptions on the Babylonian markers, the Aberdeen stones retain an enigmatic dimension; no-one can say for sure what function (ritualistic or practical) the 'saucer marks' and 'witter-holes' fulfilled.

Stone 34 ABD is accessed by crossing one of the holes of the Craibstone Golf Centre at Greenwelltree (our thoughts about golf have been recorded elsewhere - ugh!).

The stone is quite difficult to find - follow the dry stane dyke towards Glendale. The electrified barbed wire fence is somewhat less than friendly.

Between Stones 34 ABD and 35 ABD we see other markers laden with psychogeographical significance - these mark the route of the Forties Oil Pipeline as it skirts the west of the city on its way from landfall at Cruden bay to its destination at the Kinneil plant at Grangemouth.

Just south east of the pipeline marker, we find stone 35 ABD

And further along the same dry-stane dyke - stone 36 ABD.

Another Pictish Homage - Mile-End at Beechwood.

Having felt all brave and urban-explorerey looking round Oakbank, we needed to recouperate and sit down and have a nice refreshing and relaxing sip of tea from our flasks. So, looking for a nice place to rest, we found ourselves sitting on the un-dry-stane dyke at the entrance to the new Mile End School off Midstocket Road. The new Mile-End School is on the site of the former Beechwood School, which was for kids with special educational needs. Both schools are integrated now and the former Mile-End School sits empty to the east, about a half mile down Midstocket Road. We'll be keeping an eye on that.

Guarding the entrance to the new school is this homage to the Pictish Symbol Stones which are strewn all over Pict-land from the Forth to Shetland. We've noted the sculptor's work before, at Ruthrieston Pocket Park.

There have been about 350 known Pictish stones discovered to date. Historic Scotland have put together an excellent website which gives lots of information about the Picts and the artifacts and enigmas they left us to wonder over and waste our time blabbering on about. 

There are no doubt many, many more which have been ploughed under fields, biding their time and keeping their council, leaving us to guess and speculate on the nature of the Pictish enigma and their obscure symbol-language. Doubtless many more languish undiscovered, hidden in plain sight having been incorporated into more recent buildings or walls like the Brandsbutt Stone at Inverurie, which has now been restored. 

We don't know what we think about that. Certainly the stone should have been rescued from where it had been unthinkingly secreted -  unseen and unstudied. But some might suggest that the Blue Peter-y concrete patch 'restoration' almost mocks the stone.

Like the Brandsbutt Stone, the new sculpture at Mile-End School shows a "V-Rod" symbol in combination with a crescent.

Beneath the V-Rod and crescent we see a "Z-Rod" in combination with a "Double Sun". As mentioned above, the meaning of the symbols is obscure, but some analysts suggest that the V-Rod is a symbol of death, and that the Z-Rod in comination with the double-disk (or double-sun) represents the solar cycle and by association the cycle of life, death and rebirth into an afterlife. So maybe the sculpture represents the re-birth of the school in its new location.

Beneath the pictograms, we see an inscription in the Ogham alphabet which we can transliterate thus:

BUNIGDIFMNIEDERIT

OBARDHEATHIUN

Though perhaps we've gone wrong somewhere.

The new school with Foresterhill behind, looking to the skyscrapers of Cairncry

Autumn suits Midstocket Road

March Stones 26 and 27 ABD - Brotherfield

In common with other cities, notably Washington DC, the historic borders of Aberdeen are marked with boundary stones - The March Stones. ("March" being mid-Scots for "boundary" or "border").

The March Stones are said to mark the boundary of lands granted to the Burgh of Aberdeen by Robert the Bruce.

The westernmost of the March Stones are at Brotherfield.

Click for a bigger version.

Stone 26 ABD is at the confluence of the Ord Burn and Silverburn. 

Stone 27 ABD is one of the more recently-made stones, its predecessor presumably having been swept away by the Ord Burn which it borders. There had been a fair bit of rain in the few days before we visited, and the burn was roaring in spate. Aside from the style of the carving, one aspect of the newer stones is that they do not follow the convention of facing inwards, towards the burgh. That is, in order to read the inscription on the older stones, one must be standing within the border. 

In order to see the inscription on Stone 27 ABD, one must be standing outwith the border. Not that it really matters.

Stone 27 ABD used to mark an artifact known as 'The Ringing Stone'. The origin of the name has been lost in time, along with the stone itself, but stones which 'ring' with a tone when struck are not uncommon - there are 'rock-gong' sites all round the world. Indeed, the recumbent stone at the Tyrebagger stone circle is a 'ringing stone'. There's an article in this week's New Scientist about the importance of acoustics and sound design to our prehistoric ancestors. The article touches on 'rock gongs', so it's worth a read in this context.

While we were in the area, we took the opportunity to re-visit the site of Stone 21 ABD and got a proper photo of it. Cattle-saliva and bird-lime smeared though it is...

Then, as you can see, the weather closed in on us...

Click for a bigger version.

From Beans Hill, you can see all the way to Lochnagar. Weather permitting.

Public Art at Tyrebagger Woods.

We're ashamed to admit that we hadn't even heard of this place until the other day when we read that our favourite quango Aberdeen Greenspace had done some work on path consolidation there - so off we went and  we were delighted to 'discover' this installation (among many others).

When we came across it, we were first reminded of the sort of palisades built by British settlers in places like Virginia and Newfoundland during the 17th century. 

Then, as we explored the concentric structure we were reminded of other concentric defensive structures, like the pre-historic forts and earthworks around Aberdeenshire. Places like Bruce's Camp, and Hill of Christ's Kirk. There are many others.

As the concentric structure drew us in, we were delighted to find the catwalk/plank/ramp which provides access to the inside. 

This catwalk access reminded us of those other prehistoric forts, the Crannogs. 

Bench seating inside gives a relaxed haven, open to the sky, to sit, relax and listen to the sounds of the forest.

Ruthrieston Pocket Park erases a dark period from our history.

Mere metres from the perma-queued traffic at the southern end of South Anderson Drive, we have to thank our favourite quango Aberdeen Greenspace for preserving and enhancing Ruthrieston's Pocket Park.

Down an embankment and screened from the road by judicious new planting, the pocket park is an island of tranquility for pedestrians and cyclists. A recent addition to the park is this piece of public art which is a homage to Aberdeenshire's Pictish symbol stones and to the people who made them.

Symbols (from bottom) show copies of the Pictish Comb & 

Mirror, Double disk and Z-rod and Flower (or Bronze strip)

This side depicts copies of the Pictish symbols for Goose and Salmon. 
A Bull, Boar and Wolf are being herded by a axe-wielding, bearded (yet bald or tonsured) 
tribesman who has been carved in homage to The Rhynie Man.

This new piece of public art has been placed as close as is possible to the probable location of Ruadri's Mound (Motte and Bailie castle)

Ruadri was a 12th Century war-lord and strong-man who declared his estate and made his citadel on this strategic sight. Raising himself up to the heights of his commanding Motte he could look down upon his peasants, land-slaves whom he would have bonded to the fertile earth in the broad flat fertile valley of the Ruthrieson Burn below. (Now the site of the Bridge of Dee shopping and parking experience and some playing fields stretching north to Auchinyell Bridge and west to Pitfodels; bounded by Kaimhill to the south west.

Also, Ruadri's stronghold would have commanded the Foords o' Dee crossing point (the only reliable ford on the Dee east of Park) where he could have demanded tribute from all crossing the river to and from the Causey Mounth - the only road (causeway, causey) over the mounth (hilly upland) which isolates the Dee Valley from lands to the south. (We'll be examining the Causey Mounth road in detail soon, so watch this space.)

Ruadri, along with Gillecoaim (Gillecoaim's town -> Gilcomston) signed a charter for King David in 1125 in the Book of Deer which sowed the seed of Aberdeen as a Burgh in the context of the very much wider 'Davidian Revolution'. This 'revolution' was  the 'enlightenment' of its day, though, em... medieval in content and context. Sweeping reforms under the hand of King David saw the 'Normanisation' of Scotland with the establishment of a feudal order over the existing tribal social organisation which had prevailed since pre-history.

Ruadri's titles - he was the so-called last Moramaer (tribal chieftan), and first Earl (feudal big-man), of Mar - underline this changing of the social order from the tribal socialisation of wealth and power to the feudal concentration of power and wealth in the hands of self-styled 'noble' families who were, in fact quite simply the most violent stop-at-nothing in their will-to-power land-thieves and court-prostitutes in any given locality.

Now that we've learned this, we can interpret the erection of this Pictish-homage monument as a thumbing of the nose at puffed-up Ruadri and his feudal, land-grabbing, hierarchical impositions. The message could not be clearer. Where once the King's agent and lickspittle lacky lorded it over the local tribesmen and extracted tax for transit and tribute for trade, now the aboriginal inhabitants of the land are depicted going about their tribal business, untroubled by Kings, lords, tax-collectors or local strong-men.

The stain of the brutish feudal era has been erased by Aberdeen Greenspace and the sculptor of this fine piece of public art in tribute to and in memory of our antecessors. Let's hope that those who'd like to try to dominate the people of Aberdeen today, and extract extra and novel taxes from our households and businesses to enable their own ego-massaging vanity-project land-grabs will similarly be snubbed by history, in time.

March Stones 12 to 15 ABD - Cults & Bieldside

More March Stones, you know, the stones which mark the boundaries of Aberdeen's 'Freedom Lands'. You know, the lands 'gifted' to Aberdeen by Robert the Bruce in 1319. You know... oh never mind. Read this:

Leopard Mag 'Aberdeen's Stones of Time'.

Having walked the straight line along Craigton Road from Mannofield to Rocklands for stones 7 ABD to 11 ABD, we now descend Friarsfield Road (one of many braes in or around Aberdeen known as "Jacob's Ladder") into the valley of the Cults Burn, where we find stone 12 ABD.

Stone 13 is at the very summit of Cults. Just keep going up until you can't go up any more. We had a lot of trouble finding this stone - it would be much easy to find in the winter. Eventually we resorted to asking dog-walkers. The first, a teenager, looked at us as if we were talking Mandarin. The second, a middle-aged woman, was happy to help, knew what we were looking for and knew where it was. Though she did say that she'd always thought it marked a grave, or just the summit (like a trig-point) or a milestone. She was fascinated to hear about what the stone actually meant. We could barely get away.

Anyhow, while you're there, go and take a look at the Cults quarry - again, surprisingly difficult to find in the summer.

And so to stone 14 ABD. What a nightmare.

It's right by a primary school. The first time we went to look for this stone, it was in term-time and it was lunchtime. The noise of seven-hundred children playing was simply unbearable, it was like a washing-machine on high-speed spin. The stone is well-hidden and we just couldn't concentrate on looking for it because of the noise. Eventually, we thought that we looked so dodgy hanging about the bushes close to a primary school with cameras in our hands that we just gave up.

But, now that it's holiday time, and the school is closed, we could take our time, relax, concentrate, and after some rooting about eventually found the stone. Whew.

After that, stone 15 ABD is thankfully a doddle and is visible from quite some distance on Bailieswells Road.

While you're in the area, go and see the Bieldside Cairn. Huge. Impressive. 4000 years old - about the same as the pyramids. The early farming people who built this clearly had time and a large economic surplus on their hands. The individual for whom it was build must have been either greatly feared or greatly respected. Perhaps both. There is, of course, no way we can ever know.

These interesting houses are in the area around stone 15 ABD:

Recumbant Homage

Until the other day, we'd walked, driven or ridden past this artifact on the corner of Robert Gordon College's former Seafield playing fields a hundred times without giving it more thought than:

"Mmm, that piece of contemporary sculpture references the prehistoric stone circles and cairns of the North East."

And, right enough, so it does. But a close-up look is rewarding. The 'cairn' forms a sit-down viewing platform, and itself contains references to pictish symbol stones and the saucer marked stones which bounded our city in the pre-medieval era.

The 'recumbent' and 'flankers' are characterised by modern-style rule-marker metrology symbols which remind us that the recumbent stone circles of Aberdeenshire are not some superstitious pagan's mystic temples, but are, in fact, accurate observatories used to divine and define important days in the agricultural and social calendar through careful observation and measurement of the wheeling of the cosmos and the motion of the planets and moon.

The people who build the stone circles of Aberdeenshire had a keen interest in knowing exactly how their communities fitted into the entirety of the cosmos, and used their stone calendars/observatories to gain levels of insight into the true nature of the universe which were not surpassed by western civilization until after the Renaissance and Enlightenment.

We should know that we are lucky to live on the same land as these pioneers of cosmology. The contemporary sculpture on Thorngrove Avenue honors them.

You should still go and see a real recumbent stone circle, though.

Tyrebagger Stones

We cannot know for sure, but it is believed that the primary purpose of the recumbant stone circles of Aberdeenshire is as a calendar, not a burial site. Though many do have burials associated with them, these are thought to be from a later era. Tyrebagger Hill Stone Circle is a very fine example, with some jaw-droppingly large stones. Accessible by foot or mountain bike from Kirkhill Forest or Aberdeen Airport, the stones are partially blighted by Kirkhill Industrial Estate. The site is not accessible by car.

The recumbant stone at Tyrebagger has been on the wonk for ages -

The Rev. W. C. LUKIS, F.S.A., PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON. NOVEMBER 29, 1883, TO JULY 2, 1885:

The broad stone has fallen inwards and rests in an inclined position upon one or two small stones, which probably formed part of the inner ring. The stones of the outer ring are of very unequal heights; the tallest being 9 feet 7 inches and the shortest 3 feet.

The Rev. has misunderstood the 'unequal heights' thing. All the recumbant stone circles of Aberdeenshire show a gradation in stone height, smallest at the back (north), largest being the flankers. The angle(s) formed by this gradation point(s) to stuff in the sky.

Some say the picts worshipped Orion, which is plausible. It's suggested that the constellation can be seen "standing" on the recumbant on one night of the year - an impressive sight. It would have been all the more so in days when there was no light-pollution.

Others suggest that the purpose of the stones is more rational and practical than that, with no supernatural content or supreme beings or anything like that. The recumbant stone circles of Aberdeenshire can be used to track the moon and plot the cross quarter days, equinoxes and solstices. Important markers in the agricultural calendar, and so, important days in the life of the community. The recumbant and flankers act as a sort of 'screen frame' through which to observe the perigrinations of the moon. We still have 'holidays' on these important days: Mayday (Beltane); Aug bank holiday (Lughnasadh); various summer festivals; Halloween (Samhain); Christmas (Yule, Hogmanay); Valentines (Imbolc); etc. There are, inevitably, Christian festivals and holidays on these important markers too.

The recumbant aligns with Brimmond hill to the south. The other day, We were on the summit of Brimmond Hill and the stones could be seen very clearly from the summit, glinting in the strong sun. The stones are also clearly visible from the approach road to the Kirkhill Industrial Estate and the Airport - indeed, once you know they're there, you can't miss them - they kinda dominate.



There's more to the stones than the way they look. They have magnetic and acoustic qualities too:

From p45 of Stone Circles Near Aberdeen
A. L. Lewis
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 17. (1888), pp. 44-57.

Mr. McCombie Stewart, the station-master at Dyce, who should be consulted by any one visiting Dyce for scientific purposes, informed me that there was formerly a hole in the middle of the circle, which might be suggestive of the former existence of a kist; he also told me that there was supposed to be iron in the largest stones, and this seems very probable, for, on working my rough plans out at home, I found a disagreement in the compass-bearings. In this emergency I applied to Mr. McCombie Stewart, sending him a plan and asking him to verify my compass-bearings and some other particulars. He was so kind as not only to do this, but to get one of the Engineers of the railway to make an exact plan of the circle, showing the bearing of each stone from the centre. I am happy to be able to say as showing the accuracy of my own methods, that my plan superposed upon his gave practically the same results.

In the letter accompanying the plan, Mr. McCombie Stewart, who is qualified to speak as a geologist, says, "We were unable to account for the peculiar ringing sound of the altar stone, unless it be caused by the flat shape of the stone, having its side firmly fixed in the ground, the projecting part having a certain vibration - or if it were from the hard heathen substance of an iron nature - but one thing is certain, the stone is not of the same nature as those belonging to the neighbouring quarry.

Hmmm. There are other 'ringing' stones around town. More later.

A visit to Tyrebagger stones is recommended. We were there on a Sunday morning, so there was no noise from the airport or Kirkhill industrial estate. Fabulous views across the Bucksburn/Greenburn/Gough Burn basin, over Woodside and Old Aberdeen and to the sea.

The AWPR will pass within 200 metres of this scheduled ancient monument which is one of the finest neolithic sites in Scotland, and is the only surviving stone circle within the parish boundaries of Aberdeen (I think).