Astronomy or sacrifice? Take your pick.

Stone circles of various types and ages are to be found all over Britain. Aberdeenshire, however, is home to a unique kind of circle found only in NE Scotland. This is the recumbent stone circle.

Recumbent stone circles (dating to the late 3rd millennium BC) are circles of standing stones whose 2 tallest stones, on the south-western arc, flank a massive slab laid on its side - the recumbent. The recumbents average 24 tons in weight and were carefully levered and chocked-up to ensure that their upper surface was as level as possible. The recumbent and its 2 flankers frame the moon rising or setting in the southern sky and allowed lunar observations of broad seasonal change by the small farming communities who built the circles. Much of the land in this area is excellent for farming and the number of recumbent circles (99 certain or probable sites) reflects an intense settlement by farming communities in the Neolithic.

Although modern archaeologists favour a function to do with astronomical observations earlier writers had rather more blood thirsty notions. For example, in 1527 Hector Boece, the first Principal of Aberdeen University, wrote, 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."

These are the remains of a recumbent circle sitting in the middle of a field at the Kirkton of Bourtie, near to Oldmeldrum. The circle is now incomplete but the recumbent is one of the largest known.