Taexalia

wild.life

Loudon Wood Stone Circle

We left the church and walked home in the bright sunshine. My Mum, Claire and I had animated discussions about Aberdeen City issues - I notice the changes more acutely because I'm now an occasional visitor and the increase in traffic and noise since I lived there is appalling. It's fun to see that my sister is as outspoken about politics as I am and even my Mum is becoming more opinionated. We shared stories of letters to MPs and discussed dear Donald (Trump) and concluded that he and his corporation are unwelcome in the North East. Mum and Claire were amused at the fact that I wrote to Tony Blair twice in 24 hours but not so amused that he has not written back. We voiced our collective disgust that he remained on a beach holiday whilst the UK was under a critical alert and we bumped our gums about the ineptitude of office.. We bumped our gums about a lot of things but it got us home in good time!

Claire had decided not to join us for our walk as she had a night out planned and didn't want to limit our time so we said goodbye and piled into the car. Brian drove us to the Pitfour Estate near Mintlaw and we set off into the Forest of Deer to look for a stone circle. Brian had been searching for this circle and was seriously bemused by the confusing sign-post some distance away and the lack of signs nearer to the actual circle. He was unsuccessful on his first attempt and eventually resorted to his GPS! Even then, having found it once - on a return visit he had trouble finding it again and I reminded him that some of the stones are said to walk...

I was in no hurry to get there as I was enjoying the walk - more butterflies and bees decorating the heather, which was in gorgeous late summer bloom...

Heather in Forest of Deer

Blooming Heather ~ Forest of Dean

Soon enough we came upon Drinnie's Observatory and we climbed the spiral staircase to take in the view of the estate. The observatory hosts several information boards giving a bit of history of the estate as well as views across Buchan and out to sea. Unfortunately the Gemma Dog refused to climb more than six steps and had to be tied to the lightning conductor (!) whilst we went up. Allan and I decided that with a bit of work we could turn the tower into an interesting home (but I doubt the estate is really within our budget...).

Drinnies Observatory

Drinnie's Observatory

Eventually Brian directed us onto a rarely used path into the trees which led us through the damp undergrowth to our destination. But before I found the circle, I found another great treasure in the form of a Fly Agaric Mushroom. It's quite a few years since I have seen one and at one time they were suffering from habitat destruction, so I was tickled to find one so close to a stone circle...

Fly Agaric

Fly Agaric Fungi (Amanita muscaria)

There is so much lore about this small and colourful Fungi - it's history as an hallucinogenic used by Druids, it's association with the faerie folk, it's use in flying ointment by witches... and it's beautiful bright red glow in the dank green undergrowth. Of course I didn't touch it and only imagined taking a bite but I sensed the magic none the less.

A short walk on and the trees opened and blessed me with the sight of Loudon Wood Stone Circle...

Louden Wood Stone Circle

Loudon Wood Stone Circle

The circle appears to be a classic North East Recumbent but is now incomplete. The recumbent and flankers are present, although one of the flankers has fallen, and two of the circle stones remain standing. Some of the stones are fallen, or appear as broken rubble and the grass and moss cover the rocky cairn. The left flanker stands proud and both Mum and I were getting vibes when we hugged it. The recumbent stone had an interesting feature that must have been created by the weather - it appears to have a backbone.

The circle is well worth the walk and I hope to return and spend a bit more time there - the setting amidst the pine trees with heather, thistles and a beautiful rowan tree dripping with bright red fruit was lush.

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Posted on August 30, 2006 in Landscape, Photography, Scotland, Stones and Circles, Trees Plants Flowers, Wildlife.

One Response to “Loudon Wood Stone Circle”

  1. Gledwood says:
    December 10, 2006 at 5:48 pm

    (gledwood.tripod.com/blog)
    Hi Taexalia. I found your pages via Mousie’s. Is that actually the fly agaric you found? I had a book called Shade of the Marseilles Tarot by this guy who was into fly agarics (have you heard the stories about reindeer eating mushrooms and Laplanders drinking reindeer pee-pee etc??) this is all supposedly true. I remember seeing these in childhood, usually growing near birch trees. But I never saw little elvies sitting on the top! Gleds xx

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