Destination: Aberdeenshire
When I chose to start with Destination: Aberdeenshire I had no idea of the rich history I was about to discover! Besides the 260+ Castles, approximately 20% of all of the Pictish stones recorded in Scotland, and 10% of the stone circles recorded in Britain are found in Aberdeenshire. While organizing information to share, I discovered that Scotland is divided into 32 council areas for local government. We will be looking at the 12 council areas that I will be visiting in June.
Everything that I’m sharing is either something that we were planning to see during the 2020 trip, was recommended on a visitor site, or had excellent reviews on Google Maps. I gave a skip on all reviews that basically said, “Good luck finding it”, “Plan on getting stuck”, “It’s in the middle of farmers’ field. Farmer has vicious dogs and a gun!”. I definitely didn’t include anything that said, “Should have been wearing wellies and hazmat suit to avoid the sting nettles… or bees… or something else nasty!”
Aberdeenshire’s Rich Natural Beauty
Besides castles, historic homes, ruins, Pictish stones and stone circles, Aberdeenshire is rich in natural beauty with lots of hiking trails. Best is the Cairngorms National Park which has five of the UK’s six highest mountains.
If you fancy taking a walk with an Alpaca, make an appointment at Alpacas Brucklay Park.
You can tour a re-created Scottish Renaissance walled garden. The original walls of the Great Garden in Pitmedden Garden are grade A-listed. While there, you can visit the Museum of Farming.
For fun, there is also the Maud Railway Museum , the Museum Of Scottish Lighthouses, or the Huntly Falconry Centre.
A few highly recommended Aberdeenshire hikes:
Dunnottar Woods
Crawton Waterfall
Aberdeenshire Coastal Path
Bullers of Buchan
Kirkhill Forest
Dess Waterfall
A short walk to Waterfalls: Bridge of Feugh
Aberdeenshire Stone Circles and Pictish Stones
Aberdeenshire Scotland has a Pictish Stone Trail that you can follow. Here are a some of the Pictish stones and stone circles that I’d like to see:
Inverurie Pictish Stones
Loanhead of Daviot Stone Circle
Cothiemuir Stone Circle
Tomnaverie Stone Circle
Rhynie Churchyard Pictish Stones
Eslie the Lesser, Eslie the Greater, and Nine Stanes Stone Circle
Balquhain Castle of Duguid & Stone Circle
Harlaw Monument
Maiden Stone
Stonehead Recumbent Stone
Picardy Symbol Stone
Cullerlie Stone Circle
More to do in Aberdeenshire: Scottish Festivals
If you are wondering about the timing of this 2025 trip to Scotland, it was planned around the Glenglassaugh Scottish Traditional Boat Festival. It is June 27-29, 2025 in Portsoy, Aberdeenshire. While the focus is maritime and seafaring heritage, it is a bit of a series of festivals within a festival. I am looking forward to the family friendly Portsoy Boat Festival!
All of the images came from Pixabay. A special thanks to photographers: kolibri5 for Stonehead Recumbent Stone, emmagibb for Bullers of Buchan, Pole-Star for Bynack More Cairngorms, RockYourCradle for Aberdeenshire beach grass.
