The Tomnaverie Stone Circle stands on a hilltop about three quarters of a mile south east of the village of Tarland in Aberdeenshire. It is one of the 99 definite or probable "recumbent" stone circles identified in north east Scotland: so called because the largest stone was laid in a horizontal or recumbent position.
The stone circle was built here rather more than 4,000 years ago and the best theory available is that, like other such circles, it was intended to allow the farmers living in the area to plot the movement of the seasons. In this case, if you stand at the centre of the circle, the recumbent and its flankers - the large upright stones either side of it - frame the mountain of Lochnagar, and would have allowed different points of moonrise to be tracked.
As originally constructed, the circle had a diameter of about 18m. Unusually, the erection of the stones seems to have followed an earlier phase on the site, during which a number of kerbed cairns were erected containing the remains of cremations. Over time, the circle went out of use as an observatory, and it started to be used once more as a cremation cemetery.
You approach the Tomnaverie Stone Circle up a well made path from a car park just to the south of the B9094. As you climb, you increasingly begin to appreciate the spectacular location chosen by our distant ancestors.
From Undiscovered Scotland)
The Tomnaverie Stone Circle stands on a hilltop about three quarters of a mile south east of the village of Tarland in Aberdeenshire. It is one of the 99 definite or probable "recumbent" stone circles identified in north east Scotland: so called because the largest stone was laid in a horizontal or recumbent position.
The stone circle was built here rather more than 4,000 years ago and the best t…
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