If any of you have ever read or watched the Outlander series, you are probably familiar with the idea of stone circles. In the series, Claire finds a stone circle in Scotland and accidentally travels back in time by placing her hands on one of the stones. See my re-creation of this below for a good laugh:
I recently learned that North-Eastern Scotland — specifically Aberdeenshire — is known for having the highest concentration of stone circles in Scotland! They are thousands of years old and are thought to have been used as burial sites. I will soon be putting a presentation together about stone circles for my Doric speaking assessment, so perhaps I will have more interesting information to share in the future.
My group presentation is actually the reason why I thought to go out and find a stone circle to begin with. At first, I had planned to go to Elgin on Saturday to see the cathedral ruins there. However, it was WAY too sunny and beautiful to spend six hours roundtrip on a bus. So, I started Google searching all of the stone circles near Aberdeen. Most of them are quite difficult to reach by bus, but I was able to find one that I could reach before sundown!
Seconds after I decided that I would take a bus to Banchory in search of the ‘Nine Stanes Stone Circle’, Merit texted asking if I had plans for the day. I called her immediately and said, “do you want to go on an adventure?!”. Not even an hour later we were on a bus to Banchory. (P.s. ‘stanes’ is the Scots word for ‘stones’, and ‘steens’ is the word in the NE Scots dialect, Doric).
The bus ride was only an hour long, so we arrived in Banchory by early afternoon. It took us about twenty minutes to walk to our first destination: the Falls of Feugh. We stood on a footbridge and admired the rushing water below us. It was so beautiful! Apparently, it is common for people to see salmon leaping out of the water during the fall. We didn’t see any, but if I ever go back to Banchory I will be sure to stop again and look.
The walk from the Falls of Feugh to Nine Stanes Stone Circle took us about two hours, but it was a very easy path to follow. We basically just walked along the same few roads the whole time. It actually should have only taken us an hour and a half to get there, but we stopped several times. Our first stop consisted of us both trying to “baaa” at the sheep in hopes of them coming closer to the fence (they did not). Then, we stopped to look at some cool mushrooms. And, of course, we had to stop sometimes just to enjoy the view. We were in such a rural area that there was absolutely nobody out on the road! It was so nice to escape from the city for the day. I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful fall colors and animals of all sorts: sheep, goats, alpacas, cows, horses, and even a pheasant!
When we finally reached the stone circle, Merit and I were amazed at just how magical it was. The branch of a fallen tree had made a perfect arch, which looked like a gateway to the stones.
The stones were, in fact, standing in a perfect circle. I went to the middle of the circle and just looked around for a while. It was such a strange feeling to think that people performed rituals in that exact place thousands of years ago.
As I’m sure you can tell from the photos, it was already starting to get dark while we were at the stone circle. I could have stayed forever, but I also didn’t want to have to walk back to Banchory in the dark.
We nearly made it back before dark… but not quite. About an hour into our walk, Merit and I had to lock arms because we were surrounded by pitch black forest on either side. There were even bats flying around above us! It was a bit spooky, but I’m sure that’s partly because my mind has been on Halloween all week.
Speaking of Halloween… when I got back to Aberdeen last night, I immediately started getting ready to go out with Isabella! We dressed up in costumes (she was Princess Leia, and I was a pirate) and went to a bar called “Paramount”. The streets of downtown Aberdeen were flooded with people dressed as prisoners, police officers, cowboys, and movie characters. It was fun to see so many people out and about! Alyssa has been in Rome all weekend, so we are planning to go out again with her tomorrow night since it’s her favorite holiday.
That’s all for now! I have some homework and packing to do…
Until next time,
Clara