{"id":327,"date":"2025-01-29T15:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T15:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/?p=327"},"modified":"2025-02-05T19:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:43:15","slug":"raich-stone-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/2025\/01\/29\/raich-stone-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"Raich stone circle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I wrote over at Frendraught recumbent stone circle<\/a>, which I visited earlier the same day, I parked in Forgue in the empty car park of the Scott Hall. I was still happy to be in the wood but after visiting the mess of Frendraught, I was hoping Raich would be in a better state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I retraced my steps through the woods back to the edge of the fields and jumped a low barbed wire fence to head o down towards Raich stone circle. This was a mistake because I sprained my ankle two weeks ago and my achilles tendon didn’t like what I did, when I pivoted to hop the fence. I also realised I’d jumped at the wrong place so I was forced to go back to the track. I nipped over the barbed wire fence again at a point where there was plastic pipe covering the allegedly electric fence and a stile so rotten it disintegated when I stood on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading down the hill, I could see the sheep in the field I was taking care to avoid were standing on three large piles of earth, which I fervently hoped didn’t signify a destroyed circle! But no, Raich was still there, just a little further over the secondary brow of the hill, sitting in a field of harvested barley with a small later-planted section of neeps. So I went round the neeps and eventually came up to the stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I approached, Raich looked like nothing more than a pile of rocks. There was a snapped piece of wood with a broken sign laying face down. When I turned it over, the sign said PROTECTED PLACE – It is a crime to damage this historic site<\/strong>, which gave me a good laugh because this site is fucked, it was still little more than a pile of stones up close. If it is indeed a 4 poster circle, I couldn’t even tell you which 4 stones are the 4 corners, although there are some nice ones, including a stone with a bit of quartz on it, echoing the one at Frendraught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the pile is presumably made up of stones the farmers have dumped into it over the years. By the way, I’m not blaming the current farmer or owner, for all I know they could be really into the site and there is a footpath and gate for access, but much damage has been done here over the centuries. Or in more recent memory, since Canmore <\/a>reported as late as the 1950s “The W corner has been destroyed by ploughing, but the rest survives in good order and comprises an upright stone in each of three corners with a straight kerb of boulders on edge between them.” It’s a shame because the views are pretty good – rolling hills and a valley stretching away to the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glad though I was to be out stone hunting, I couldn’t really get much from this pile. In terms of access, it’s prob much easier to come up from the distillery and farm which bring you to the gate I mentioned rather than coming down the hill. And keep your expectations low! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TMA<\/a> \/ Canmore<\/a> \/ HER<\/a> \/ Stravaiging<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I wrote over at Frendraught recumbent stone circle, which I visited earlier the same day, I parked in Forgue in the empty car park of the Scott Hall. I was still happy to be in the wood but after visiting the mess of Frendraught, I was hoping Raich would be in a better state. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,24],"tags":[93,95,82,92],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-sites","category-excursion","tag-aberdeenshire","tag-forgue","tag-mess","tag-raich-stone-circle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mujinga.net\/berryblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}