The day we gaed tae Aikey

'The sun was bricht, the sky was clear, on the day we gaed tae Aikey' and so it was today when Lesley456 and I visited not Aikey Fair mentioned in the bothy ballad but Aikey Brae recumbent stone circle.

The circle has been revealed in all its magnificence since my previous visit a couple of decades ago. The dense trees which made the approach difficult have been felled so that wide open views across Buchan can be enjoyed from the circle. The 4, 000 year old circle consists of 10 stones, all but the massive whinstone recumbent (See extra) and its flankers are made of granite. The exact purpose of the recumbent circles which are almost all found in Aberdeenshire is not clear but they were probably lunar calendars. Later many were used as cremation cemeteries.

Aikey Fair was held on a stance below the circle on a Wednesday in July from the 1800s until the 1940s and was a traditional horse fair. From the early 1900s a fair with rides and stalls was held on the preceeding Sunday. This continued after the decline of the horse fair.